Two Halves, One Whole: Memories
by DigiTails
Summary: Kurama bumps into an old friend and gains some old memories from a strange orb. In the past Yusuke got a new case: watch out for a female demon of great strength. A new girl came to Kurama’s school. Are they the same person? HINTED: Hiei & OC, Kurama & OC
1. New Student

_**When This Takes place**_

Very difficult question...I think this happens instead of the Three Kings Saga because the Three Kings Saga would mess with the story too much for my liking. I've changed a few events as you'll most likely noticed, or rather delayed them. Kurama's mom is not getting married in this story but between this one and its sequel.

_**Heights and Ages of Starring Official Characters**_

This might not be the real stuff, but its what I say, while trying very hard to stick to the official stats

Shuichi Minamino- 16, 5' 11"

Hiei Jaganshi- looks 16 (real age is undefined), 4' 10"

Yusuke Urameshi- 15, 5' 8"

Keiko Yukimura- 15, 5' 4"

Kazuma Kuwabara- 15, 6' 3"

Youko Kurama- 1, 000 but looks 15, 7' 0"

Botan- looks 14, 5' 8"

Koenma Daioh- 700+ looks four or sixteen, 1' 6" or 5' 8"

The original characters 

Zaira Tsukari Zaigai "Nuema"- 15, 5' 6"

Delis Nuema- 645, looks 18, 6' 11"

_**This isn't my character. This one belongs to a friend who is letting me "borrow" her for this story...**_

Shiei- looks 16, 4' 9"

_**Just so you won't get confused later...**_

"blah blah blah"- people saying stuff out loud

"_blah blah blah_"- people thinking stuff

'_blah blah blah'_- telepathic messages

_Blah blah blah­- _Narrator's notes, flashbacks, etcetera

!-Blah blah blah-! Beginning and end to chapters

!- change of time, or minor change in location

**_Disclaimers_**- I never have claimed to own Yu Yu Hakusho! I never did, still don't, and will never be able to claim that. Yu Yu Hakusho is owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. My OCs, Delis and Zaira belong to me. The other OC, Shiei, belongs to my friend, Hiei-Jaganshi-Lover

!-Begin Chapter One-!

_**New Student**_

_In a small city in Japan, our story starts. The down town was crowded with people, so it wouldn't be unusual for people to bump into each other. Unless, of course, one considered the people bumping into each other. One was a boy, he had lengthy blood red hair and bright green eyes. His face was calm and removed, the look in his eyes were almost that of him missing something, but he didn't know what it was. The other was a girl, she had long sepia hair kept in a half ponytail._

_When the incident occurred, the girl dropped the brown paper bag she had been carrying. When she noticed the person she had bumped into, terror fled momentarily into her silver eyes and she apologized before hurrying off. The young man stared blankly after her, not exactly knowing why he had caused that reaction to the girl. He stared at the bag at his feet. Sighing her bent down and picked it up, it was useless to try and find her now._

_When he got back to the large house he shared with his parents and younger brother he went directly to his room. Right now it was halfway between lunch and dinner. He locked the door. He sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the package he held. Something was pulling at him to look inside the package. He felt there was something of him in there._

_Feeling slightly awkward he tentatively opened the bag and pulled out an orb in side it, the only object the sack held. Inside the glass like object black and purple smoke swirled around inside it. Within moments of pulling it out, his vision blacked out as memories inside the orb filled his head and every thought. His eyes gained a glazed over look as he became oblivious of the world around himself._

A teenage boy sat alert in class, he had unusually long hair for a boy and it just hung, not in any sort of style except just being long and he had emerald colored eyes. All the students around him were trying to sleep. Of course, History class is sleep time in school, not that amazing.

The boy was lost in thought, thinking about events that had started just before school had ended in June. They had ended just a matter of weeks ago. He was still recovering from the burst of energy he had acquired during that time. He was thinking, and wondering just how many S class demons there were, whatever that meant.

There was a sharp knock on the door and the principal entered, the boy snapped to attention and pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind. Trailing behind her was a girl with long gold brown hair and silver eyes. She wasn't wearing the school uniform and there was a schedule in her hand, obviously a new student.

"Ms. Katashi, do you mind if I borrow a student for the rest of this period?"

"No, Ms. Bakan."

The principal's gaze flitted around the around the room and finally rested on the only alert student. "Shuuichi, since you seem to be the only student with your wits, I'm going to ask you to show Ms. Zegai around the school."

There was a round of giggles spread around the classroom at the new student's name. She sighed, knowing full well how funny her last name could be to idiots, which she guessed to include almost the entire class. Shuuichi picked up his books and walked out of the classroom. The new girl followed him out of the class and watched him carefully.

"Good morning…" he was about to add "Ms. Zegai" when the girl cut him off.

"Zaira, my name's Zaira." She said rather forcefully

!-

After school that day, she went quickly to a shop in town that sold the Meiou school uniform she would have to wear. The entire outfit consisted of a knee length bright red skirt with an equally bright red jacket that was to be worn over a low-necked shirt. The jacket had a collar that went to the shoulder seams, with a white pinstripe around the edges. The bottom hem of the jacket went just a little past the waist. The skirt would show off the bandaging that Zaira wore around her legs from the knees to the ankles.

She had had the uniform tailored to fit her perfectly a few days previous when she had just moved into the city. It now was ready.


	2. A New Case

_**A New Case**_

_Outside of the room stood three people. One was a short kid, the red haired boy's younger brother. The other was a punk looking kid with slicked black hair and brown red eyes. The other had messy carrot colored hair and squinty black eyes._

"_Kid, you can go now. We just need to talk with your brother." The boy with the black hair said._

"_Okay."_

_The brown eyed boy crouched down and looked through the key hole. "Yeah, he's in there."_

"_Can you open it?"_

"_I'm a pickpocket, I can't break into locked rooms. We'd need an expert thief for that."_

_The door opened, a boy with spiky black hair and red eyes opened the door. A smirked was on his face. "I hear you're in need of a thief, detective."_

_The other boy stood up and looked down at the short new person. "What are you doing here?"_

"_I came to ask the fox a question." He stood back and allowed the other two sight into the room, at the red haired boy. "Look for yourselves."_

_They saw and stared. His glazed over eyes catching them off guard and then they all noticed the orb in his hands. "Hey, what is that?"_

"_It's a memory orb. It holds conjured or stolen memories. If you touch it, and your memories are held in their, the orb fills your head with those particular memories." They looked over to stare at a female, she had a bored look on her face, black hair tipped in icy shades, her red eyes glaring at them, "Do any of you feel a pull towards that orb?"_

_The other three nodded. They stared at the orb and touched it, each of them freezing in place and their eyes glazing over as well._

!-

A kid in a dark green trench coat was leaning against a wall. He had black hair that was slicked back with a gel that made it look more like a darkened green and brown eyes. His hands were in his pockets and he looked to be in a bad mood.

"Damn! I've been waiting here for fifteen minutes already. Koenma said this was important, so why am I still waiting?"

He was annoyed, this always happened on his cases, waiting. Sometimes he'd be waiting for the end of the world. He had better things to do, like figure out who his ancestor was. At least he had something to do, although he had to threaten King Enma himself to get that. Why did people in control have to be such morons anyways?

The large oak doors in front of him opened and he walked in. There was a desk piled in papers. Sitting behind it was a baby pitting stamps on the papers. The baby looked up at the boy and showed a blue pacifier.

"Ah, Yusuke, glad to see you made it. I have a new case for you."

"Okay, spill it."

"About fifteen years ago there was a very powerful demon in Makai, I think 'S' class at least. We have gotten word that she's now in human world."

"Wait, 'she' as in a _girl_?"

"Yes, _she_ is rather notorious for killing in demon world and her short temper. She hasn't killed any humans yet, but I shudder to think of what would happen if she was annoyed enough down there."

"Okay, do you know what she looks like, or her name?"

"Her name is Delis, Delis Nuema. We don't much of what she looks like, except she is a master of the Takabu, the white fire phoenix, and will have a white scar on her body in the shape of a phoenix."

"Anything else?"

"Not really, just tell the others about this."


	3. School of Hentais

School of Hentais 

Zaira ran into her homeroom one second before the bell rang and took her seat. She leaned backwards and closed her eyes, crossing her arms. In a few minutes, everyone was sitting, next to her was a strange boy with freaky looking eyes, the way he was eyeing her made her somewhat uneasy. In front of her seat was Shuuichi.

In lunch the freaky looking kid tried to sneak up on her when she was walking into the cafeteria, running a bit late from gym. A silent as he was, though, she still managed to hear him.

Zaira turned around quickly and glared icily at him. "Yes?" Her voice was ice cold and her face was completely devoid of emotion.

"You've been avoiding me all day." The kid grabbed her wrist, his grip was like iron and must have hurt a lot, but Zaira didn't even do so much was wince.

"There was a reason for that." Zaira rotated her wrist quickly, freeing her hand. "Usually I give two warnings for stupidity. This gets one, don't do that ever again, or else."

"Or else what, pretty girl?"

Zaira glared and anger flashed in her eyes which gained a yellow glow. Her voice lower into a near growl and the only person that could have heard her was the kid.

"Or else you'll regret it in the pits of hell." With that, she turned around and walked away.

Zaira had managed to make it through the rest of the day without much mishap, and she was walking out of the school, when she felt someone behind her. She turned quickly, staring into the face of the kid. She then noticed that there were several guys looking at her in that strange way as well. Zaira's eyes narrowed. "What do you want now?"

"You were avoiding me again." The kid had reached out to grab her wrist again, but she dodge, walking off school grounds.

"Leave me alone before I lose my temper." The kid didn't do much in the way of listening and followed her, also walking off school grounds.

"Aw come…how about a d…" Zaira's fish lashed out and sent him flying into the nearest tree, which was twenty yards away.

"I warned you," she turned around about to leave but turned back again, "oh, here's a hint for the next time you want to hit on me, don't."

Without another thought for the school, Zaira turned around and walked away. Shuuichi was up in one of the science rooms, cleaning out some tests tubes, on a lab table behind him there were some supplies for a science experiment. When he had looked around he had seen the whole scene and as Zaira walked away, he blinked.

"_She's strong…_" he mused silently to himself. He then looked up at a clock and his eyes widened. "I'm supposed to be meeting with the others right now! How could I have forgotten?"


	4. Kurama, Delis, Nuema, Shiei

Kurama, Delis, Nuema, Shiei 

Zaira sighed as she walked through the forest, she hadn't felt like going home immediately. Zaira shivered slightly as a cold feeling shot down her spine and she ducked into the woods, hiding behind a tree.

Voices filled the air where she was, male voices. Zaira crouched down lower as they came closer to the area she was in, closing her eyes and concentrating hard on something before she opened her eyes again.

"Do you sense Kurama near by, Hiei?"

"Hn."

"I don't sense anything here, Urameshi."

"That's funny, Kurama's never late like this. I coulda sworn I sensed something here earlier."

Zaira could see three people now. One was Yusuke, the person to his left was extremely short, only about 4' 10", he had tall spiky black hair with a white starburst and red eyes. He was wearing a white scarf, black cloak, and black boots, along with a white bandana. The other one was tall, had messy orange hair, black eyes, and a blue school uniform.

As Zaira's eyes stopped on the shortest one, she accidentally let out a low gasp of shock. The boy's red eyes focused on where she was.

"There's someone in the woods watching us."

"What are you talking about Hiei? I don't sense anyone nearby, or hear anything."

Hiei disappeared without a trace and Zaira felt something cold and sharp uncomfortably close to her throat. She turned her head slightly and found herself looking down at Hiei, and his katana. She raised an eyebrow at the blade, as if asking "planning to kill me?"

Yusuke and Kuwabara came into the trees and looked over at Zaira and Hiei.

"Aw, shrimp, it's just a girl. Put your sword away."

"Hn." Hiei shot Zaira a warning glare before pulling his sword away from her throat and sheathing it.

"Why were you hiding in the forest?"

Zaira looked over at Yusuke strangely and sighed, not really able to bring herself to explain it to strangers. "I thought you were someone else." She shifted uncomfortably, why did she have to mess her cover up like that? Two of them had demon energy, that didn't make her feel any better about her current position.

Yusuke nodded and snapped his fingers. "Hey, that's a uniform from Kurama's high school!"

Zaira blinked and hoped Yusuke wasn't referring about the kid. Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara walked back onto the path, pulling Zaira with them. Suddenly she felt a burning sensation on her back and she turned to face Hiei, who was smirking. Zaira blinked and suddenly realized in her anger she had let her concentration slip ever so slightly and her energy reappeared a little, and it wasn't exactly human.

"I thought that strange energy from before had come from you." It was a whisper so that she could hear it only. "Why are you in human world?"

As if saved by some mysterious force Zaira heard footsteps coming down the path and turned her head. She saw Shuuichi coming up the path. He stopped in front of the group.

"Sorry to be behind schedule."

"That's okay Kurama, you were only a half hour late."

Zaira blinked. "_Kurama? I thought his name was Shuuichi_…" She quickly took the opportunity and backed quickly and silently back into the forest, masking her energy once more.

"Hey, Kurama, there's this girl..." Yusuke trailed off looked around, trying to spot her, although she was gone. "Damn it, where'd she go?"

"What are you talking about, Yusuke?"

"Hn. I suppose she used you as a distraction to sneak away. She looked like a human, but her energy said otherwise."

"A demon?"

"Hn. If I knew that she wouldn't have been able to get away."

Kurama looked over to Yusuke, shaking his head. "I'm here now, what did Koenma tell you to do this time?"

Yusuke blinked, having forgotten why he had asked the other three to come here, "Koenma told me to look out for this demon chick that is in human world. He doesn't know much about her except that her name is Delis Nuema. Also, he says, she should have a large white phoenix shaped scar."

"Do you know anything else about Delis?"

"Koenma said she should be about 'S' class and has a short temper."

Zaira had been running silently in the woods to her house. She only stopped when she got to the safety of her house and leaned against the closed front door. She dropped her book bag onto the ground and went up to her room. The window was open and someone was leaning against a wall, eyes closed and arms crossed.

"Hello, Shiei."

Shiei looked vaguely similar to Hiei, as if she was of the same race. Her skin was a darker tone, however and her hair was finer. She also had higher cheek bones then Hiei. Although she had a starburst, it was floppier, while Hiei's was due to the ends of some of his spikes being tinted white. The ends of her hair were tinted in ice, and kept in a thick strong braid. Her outfit was varied from Hiei's quite a bit, but it mainly involved black.

"Hn."

Zaira sat down on a chair. "Didn't take you that long to find me this time."

"Why would it, Nuema?"


	5. Lab Day

_**Lab Day**_

Nuema had been in school for over a month now. She had settled down relatively easily into the high school, though she never talked willingly to another person in the school, except for Kurama. As of yet, Yusuke hadn't seen head nor hide of Delis, nor had the rest. Not even Hiei's jagan skills were of much help to them.

Nuema was staring out a window during her Lab Biology class. Today was a double lab day and they had a sub, meaning they didn't have a lab to do. The class was given a small amount of work, she was already done, everyone else, except for Kurama who had finished before Nuema, was still working.

The bell rung, signaling that the first half of their lab period was done. Everyone, except Nuema, Kurama, and the teacher, left the classroom. Nuema looked at the sink's counter, there were two plants; one was a spider plant the other was, she knew, a form of rose plant, even though it wasn't the traditional type. She looked over at Kurama, who was looking at the rose plant kind of thoughtfully. Nuema got up and walked over to Kurama.

"You know, you're staring at a rose plant."

"Huh?" Kurama looked up at Nuema then back at the plant. "Oh hi. How did you know that?"

Nuema sighed, "I've always been a bit of a gardener, in one of the places I lived, I had a plant like that one." She looked down at Kurama, who was looking at her strangely, "What is it my fault I happen to like flowering plants?"

Kurama shook his head and then looked back over to the plant. Nuema crossed her arms and smirked. "You like roses, don't you?"

Kurama blinked, wondering vaguely how she figured it out so easily. "Yes."

Nuema let a sly smirk cross her face for a brief second before she walked back to her seat. She pulled a piece of paper out of her notebook, a pencil soon following. She started drawing something. As people passed her desk they stopped and stared at what she was drawing. They eventually formed a crowd, muttering comments like "She's really good," "Wow," and "Great picture". Nuema eventually noticed the group when she finished. She froze in place for a second before shrugging it off mentally and scrawled a small message on the paper and put her pencil and paper away.

At lunch Kurama found Nuema sitting by herself. "What did you draw last period?"

Nuema snickered. "You're actually curious, Shuuichi?" She shrugged vaguely and pulled a piece of paper out of her folder, handing it over to Kurama. He stared at the picture for a few seconds, it was obviously a rose, but he couldn't tell which type. He then looked at the message.

_Roses are red_

_Maybe blue_

_Mostly they're pink,_

_And you stink._

"That's a kind poem."

"The unchanged version is too nice." Was Nuema's simple reply.

"What type of rose is this?" Kurama had tried to be an expert on roses, but this was a variation he hadn't seen before.

"World Peace Rose. Oh you can have that drawing."

Yusuke was, as his norm, skipping school. He was walking in the forest when he heard voices, one he recognized as Hiei's, the other he didn't. He snuck as quietly as he could and hid behind a tree. He snuck a glance at Hiei and who he was talking to. He saw Hiei and was a bit shocked to see Shiei.

Hiei and Shiei were only two feet from each other talking about something, hands in their pockets.

"Hn, never thought I'd see _you_ again Shiei."

"Hn."

There was silence for a few moments, then they both asked the other "What are you doing in Ningenkai?" in unison. Then "Probation," was their unison response.

"What did you do?" They asked at the same time. Then…"You first." Shiei smirked slightly, she had managed to say and finish that statement before Hiei. Hiei glared at Shiei before responding.

"I stole the Demon Sword from Spirit World."

Shiei's smirk got wider, "I hope you didn't think that you were going to get away with that."

"Hn. What about you?"

"Human killing spree." She glared at Hiei's expression, "those baka ningens annoyed me."

"Hn."

Yusuke snuck off, Hiei and Shiei seemingly not paying attention to him. Once Yusuke was out of hearing range they both sighed.

"That stupid baka detective…listening to other people's conversations."

"Hn, I believe he's looking for a demon named Delis, now."

Shiei's face flashed with recognition of the name, but for less than a second. Anyone farther from her than Hiei wouldn't have been sure if they had seen it, but Hiei was.

"You know her?" Hie was looking at Shiei carefully, trying to figure out if she was lying.

Shiei's physical reaction was null, so was her verbal for a few seconds. "No."

"Hn, I don't believe you." Shiei glared at Hiei, "You know her."

Shiei offered absolutely no response, except for a glare. "Hn." She walked out of the clearing. "You'll be able to find her as easily as Youko." With that she left the clearing.


	6. Scary End to October

"Scary" End to October 

Nuema sat on the floor in her room. In her lap was a pair of black jeans and there were several black roses with red liquid like streaks on them. She was putting the plastic roses through the belt loops and tying them there with black string.

The window was open and there was a rather warm breeze coming in from outside. There was a slight sound from her window and Nuema looked up at Shiei.

"Good afternoon," Nuema looked back to what she had been doing earlier.

"What are you doing?"

"Making a belt out of black roses."

"Why?"

Nuema looked up at Shiei and smirked. "In a few days it will be the last day in October. You've known me long enough to know what that means."

"Halloween."

Nuema nodded and finished with the last rose. She put the jeans in her closet. "Feel like scaring some wimps this year, Shiei?"

"Hn. Scaring idiotic humans without getting in trouble. What do you think?"

Nuema spoke over her slight snickering. "That's a yes."

School that day was a partial day. Nuema grinned and ran as fast as she could in the school uniform t her house. There were a couple of decorations on the lawn. A realistic Styrofoam tombstone, a large spider's web with a large black and red spider. There was nothing that scary, yet at least.

As the sun set Nuema put up the rest of the decorations. There was a small wall mounted fountain, using colored water that looked like blood. On the spider's web was a pillow wrapped in cheesecloth with red dye on it, it looked like a small body wrapped in webbing with bloody puncture wounds.

Nuema went back inside and put her costume on.

After nightfall Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara stopped at the path to a rather spooky looking house. They had been to a few "scary" houses so far, but this one was without a doubt the scariest. Kuwabara looked kind of scared and he looked over the pillow on the web and the fountain.

"Is that real blood?"

"No, there isn't blood's pungent odor in the air."

Yusuke, dressed up as a ninja, laughed at Kuwabara, "Don't tell me you're scared."

Hiei smirked, he was dressed up as himself, minus his scarf, cloak and bandana so his sword and jagan could be seen easily. His jagan was glowing blue in the dark. Kurama had black pants and a black shirt on with a blood red belt, and he was holding a black rose. Kuwabara was dressed as a court jester.

"No I'm not."

"Hn. Let's get this over with already."

After a few seconds of urging Kuwabara to come with them the four walked down the path. Hiei vaguely heard an evil snicker in the dark.

"G...guys, what's that?"

Hiei, Kurama, and Yusuke looked over to where Kuwabara was pointing. There was a purple eye glowing red high in the air. It was watching their every movement, it followed them as they walked. When they walked up to the door a flame flared up on the lawn.

Kuwabara was scared stiff, and Yusuke was busy laughing at Kuwabara. Hiei refused to knock on the door leaving Kurama to do so. Kurama knocked on the door. It was answered a few seconds later by Nuema. She had on her jeans with the black rose belt, a black long sleeved shirt and she had tied her hair back with a big black ribbon. She had put white makeup on her skin and white lipstick, there was red stuff on her face that looked like scars. Her face looked dead. Everyone blinked.

"Zaira?"

"The one and only."

"What was that eye thing?"

Nuema cocked an eyebrow. "What eye thing?"

Kuwabara looked to where he had seen the eye but it wasn't there. Everyone, except Nuema, looked confused. There had been an eye there before, hadn't there?

Nuema shivered slightly and there was a dull thud in the area where the boys were looking.

"I'll look at your 'eye' problem." Nuema forced them as far as she could from the tree. "Stay here."

She picked up a flashlight from where she had hidden it earlier and turned it on. The light shined on a tree, she walked over to it, then walked around the trunk.

'_Get that light out of my eyes.'_

Nuema lowered her flashlight and looked at the source of the voice, Shiei. Shiei's bandana was off, revealing a purple jagan eye.

'_What happened Shiei?'_ Before Shiei could answer, Nuema felt something cold wrap around her and drain her energy a lot. Her flashlight dropped to the ground and was shut off. Even though her eyes were open, she couldn't see anything and she collapsed to her knees. Nuema was released and she could see again. She shivered, feeling extremely cold all of a sudden.

'_That'._ Shiei looked at Nuema, slightly concerned, '_They found you again.'_

Nuema picked up her flashlight and stood up. '_I could tell. Wanna call it a night?'_

Shiei pulled her bandana out of her pocket and put it on, nodding. Even if she was too stubborn to admit it, her spirit energy was low and she needed to rest badly. Shiei jumped into a tree and fell asleep.

Nuema sighed and turned off the light, walking back to her house. She opened the door after putting the flashlight back. She forced a convincing laugh before she spoke.

"Nothing was there, you boys must have been seeing things."

When they had gone down the path she went inside her house closing the door behind herself. She turned off the lights outside and went upstairs.


	7. Kidnapped?

_**Kidnapped?**_

It had been about two weeks since Halloween, and no one in the group knew where Delis could be. This fact was annoying Yusuke, because he wouldn't get another case until he solved this one.

It was another lab day for Nuema and Kurama. Their teacher walked in with a big grin on his face. The rest of the class watched him cautiously, like he was a dangerous animal. He straightened a few stacks of paper, letting everyone in the class, except for Nuema and Kurama, get nervous.

"I have great news class. Since it's the start of a new marking period, you all are getting a group project." There were several groans in the class and Nuema didn't look very thrilled at all either. "What's more is that I'm choosing the groups." There were several more loud groans.

By the end of the first period, everyone was working in different areas of the classroom. Nuema and Kurama had been assigned to work together, and Nuema found this arrangement tolerable. Right now they were gathering information on the parts of a cell.

"How do you want to do the presentation, Shuuichi?"

"A model perhaps?"

"Sounds fine to me."

"Where would we get the materials to make the model?"

"My house. I'm pretty sure there's some junk lying around that we could use."

"When would we work on it? Its due next week."

"Today, after school. It's a Friday after all and I'm not going to be home much this weekend."

"Okay."

Hiei was relaxing rather comfortably in a tree. His eyes were closed and he looked to be asleep, even though he was wide awake.

Hiei's eyes snapped open and he glared at Shiei. She was sitting on the branch right in front of him, smirking.

"Do tell me, did I sneak up on you?"

"Hn."

Shiei smirked again and jumped onto the ground. Hiei followed suit soon after. He glared at Shiei, he hadn't seen her since she gave him that confusing riddle one month ago.

"You know who Delis is."

Shiei returned Hiei's glare. "That maybe true, but I'm not telling you."

"Hn."

'_Did you figure it out yet?' _ Hiei heard Shiei's voice in his head and he gave her his death glare. "Hn. To find Youko, not Kurama, would be difficult. Delis will be as well."

"Do you know why?"

"Delis is a demon spirit trapped inside a human body."

"Hn. You figured it out."

"Which human?"

"I'm not telling you." Shiei jumped into a tree. With that, Shiei jumped through the trees.

Hiei growled to himself. He waited a minute before jumping into a tree. He then followed Shiei, after masking his spirit energy.

Nuema leaned against a wall, tapping her foot impatiently. She had been waiting for Kurama for a few minutes by now. What in the hells was taking him so long to get out of school?

She spotted Kurama coming out of the gates and muttered, "Finally." Nuema walked over to Kurama and adjusted her book bag's position slightly.

"Finally decided to come out, eh, Shuuichi?"

Kurama turned to face Nuema. "Oh there you are, Zaira."

"Ready to go?"

"Yes."

Nuema walked down the streets, Kurama following her.

Yusuke ran up to Kurama, Nuema stopped walking and turned around.

"Kurama, you need to come with me."

"Why?"

"Koenma. Come on."

Kurama looked past Yusuke's shoulder to Nuema. "Do you mind?"

"Nah, just stop by when you're done. I need to go home. I trust you remember where the 'eye' house is."

"Yes, I remember its location."

"Okay then, 'bye." Nuema continued walking while Yusuke led Kurama in the opposite direction.

Nuema stopped at the corner of a street. This was the fastest way to her house, it was on the other side of the street. Still, she wished she had another fast way to get to her house.

She started walking again, but stopped when a shudder ran down her spine. An arm wrapped around her throat. Fear flashed through her, natural instincts of clawing at the arm tried to take over. She calmed them, though, and glared at the offensive limb, unable to see its owner.

"Let me go, now."

The only response Nuema received was a cloth to be placed over her face. An acrid scent burned her nostrils and she coughed slightly, having to breath in through the cloth. She slipped into a semi-unconscious state. She looked to be out cold, but her mind and senses still worked. This seemed to be good enough though and the cloth was dropped onto the ground, and Nuema fell fully unconscious.

Shiei was completely oblivious to Hiei's presence behind her as she moved through the trees. She slowed as she neared Nuema's house. Shiei stopped on a branch near a window. She deftly opened it and went through the window, closing it behind herself.

Shiei frowned to herself when she saw that the room was empty. Her spirit awareness told her that the rest of the house would be the same, except for the cat wandering through the rooms. Shiei glared at Nuema's clock. Nuema was supposed to be home by now, so where was she?

Shiei growled and opened the window again. Crouching on the windowsill she looked around, spotting Hiei's eyes staring at her. She glared at Hiei and jumped into the tree closing the window. Shiei jumped to the ground and walked over to the tree Hiei was in, glaring up.

"Get down from that tree, Hiei."

Hiei jumped down from the tree, landing a foot from Shiei, he leered at her.

"So its that ningen from Kurama's school."

"Hn."

Hiei and Shiei suddenly looked at the house, as if they could see through the walls to the other side.

"Why is Kurama here?"

"Hn. No clue, but he's your friend."

Shiei snickered and walked away, leaving Hiei to figure it out. He glared at her retreating back and walked around the house. He spotted Kurama at the door and walked over to him. Kurama turned his head and looked at Hiei.

"Hiei? What are you doing here?"

"Hn. None of your business."

Shiei was at the other end of the street by now. There wasn't anyone there to see her, except Hiei and Kurama. She walked onto the asphalt and spotted a piece of cloth lying in the street. She picked it up, staring at a symbol on it strangely. A strong scent reached her and she suddenly felt dizzy. "_What the hell?"_ Before she could do much else, she collapsed on the ground. She tried to move, but found to her surprise, and annoyance, that she couldn't.

At the other end of the street Hiei and Kurama were talking about the case.

'_Hiei!'_

Hiei closed his eyes. '_What, Shiei?'_

There was a slight pause before Shiei's response. '_I need your help…'_

Hiei smirked, not aware of the strange look Kurama was giving him. '_Why?'_

'_Hn. I'm in the middle of a the other end of the street in plain ningen sight, and I can't move.'_

'_What? Why?'_

'_No clue. Just get me out of this street.'_

Hiei opened his eyes and broke off into a run to where Shiei was. Kurama shot Hiei's back a confused look before following him.

Hiei stopped when he reached Shiei, Kurama came up behind Hiei. He looked between the two confused slightly by their slight similarities. Hiei picked Shiei up in his arms and walked off the street into the forest. Kurama stared down at the cloth that had slipped from Shiei's hand and picked it up, pocketing it. He then followed Hiei.

Hiei placed Shiei against the base of a tree. Kurama looked from Shiei to Hiei with a questioning look. He knew full well Hiei wouldn't help a perfect stranger like that.

"Hiei, who is she?"

'_Hn. My name is none of your concern.'_

Kurama looked around the clearing. He had heard someone talking, a female voice. Hiei smirked at Kurama's confusion, doing nothing to help him. Kurama looked down at Shiei.

"Did she say something?"

'_No, I'm using telepathy.'_

Shiei's eyes opened and she glared at Kurama. She then stood up and leaned against the tree.

"What were you doing at Zaira's house?"

Kurama didn't bother to ask her how she knew he had been at Nuema's house. "School science project."

"Hn."

There was a whizzing sound in the air and Shiei raised her hand. Less than a second later there was the sound of something fast and hard hitting skin and Shiei closed her hand, putting it in her pocket.

"What was that?"

"None of your concern."

Nuema bolted into a sitting position. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes several times. Where in the hells was she?

She moved some black and red blankets off herself and stood up. She took a better look at the room she was in. There were three things in there other than herself. A black couch with black and red blankets on it, her book bag, and a table with something shiny on it. The walls were orange and the light was a bloody red.

She blinked feeling extremely out of it. She dropped to her knees and went through her book bag, books, folder, and notebooks. Finding nothing new or gone she closed the bag and hefted it onto her shoulder. She pocketed the thing on the table and opened the door.

Nuema sighed she was outside, somewhere. She glanced over her shoulder and saw nothing. She shrugged it off and walked around, still feeling out of it, to find a clue as to where she was.

As she ambled around wherever she was, after finding where she was she quickly devised, and took, the quickest route back to her house.


	8. Crystal Clear

Crystal Clear 

Nuema had reached the corner again. She paused and looked around before walking down the street. When she reached her house, Nuema shifted her book bag on her shoulder and walked inside.

Hiei, Kurama, and Shiei had gone into Nuema's house, courtesy of Shiei's thievery skills. Kurama had wanted to search for Nuema when she had been deemed missing, however Hiei and Shiei hadn't felt like it, and wouldn't say why he wanted to, so he had just joined them inside the house.

When Nuema had opened the door to her house, a tabby cat jumped off the couch it had been resting on and raced over to her, climbing onto her shoulder. Nuema scratched the brown, black, and white kitten between the ears.

"Hey, girl. Anything interesting happen today?"

The cat purred and then jumped to the floor, turning her head to look up at Nuema. She laid her ears back on her head and raced off, Nuema following.

The door to Nuema's room was open slightly and the kitten slipped in through the crack. Nuema pushed the door open and stood in the doorway staring at Hiei, Kurama, and Shiei.

"Hello. What are you doing in my room?" Nuema had crossed her arms and she was glaring at the boys.

The three other occupants of the room looked up at her, Kurama and Hiei flinched slightly at her glare. After a second Kurama's green eyes flashed in concern.

"Are you okay?"

The glare left Nuema's eyes as she looked at Kurama oddly, "Yes, I am fine. Why do you ask?"

Kurama shook his head and pointed to the only mirror in the room, which was barely big enough to show her face. Nuema cocked her eyebrow and walked over to the mirror and studied her face. She was shocked to see that she had paled a lot, and there were dark rings under her eyes, but she didn't show it. "Heh, your eyes are fooling you, I look fine." She closed her eyes and concentrated and looked back at the other three, she now looked fine. "Still, I would appreciate it if you all left."

"But the p-"

"We have a week to do it, come back tomorrow, 'kay?"

Kurama nodded and walked out of the room, Hiei tossed Shiei a glare and left as well. Shiei leaned against the wall of the room and watched Nuema. Nuema sighed and sat on the edge of her bed and rest her head in her hands, when she lifted her head to look at Shiei, she looked as she had a few minutes previous. Shiei smirked.

"I knew you were covering it. So tell me, what happened to you?"

"And what about you? I can see the energy traces around your face, you're masking something."

Shiei glared at Nuema and several threads of black and red energy lashed out from Shiei's face and faded away in less than a second. Shiei looked almost as bad as Nuema, but a bit better.

"I see...well, I don't know what happened to me...and why are you still here? I thought I said I wanted everyone to leave."

Shiei reached into the pocket of her cloak and pulled out a small flashy object. She tossed it to Nuema. "I thought you might like to see this."

Nuema caught the object and studied it. The object was a diamond shaped fiery red crystal with black threads clustered in the center. It felt icy cold in Nuema's hands.

"How interesting." Nuema tossed it back to Shiei. "I trust you remember how to 'open' it."

Shiei glared at Nuema and placed the elongated tips of the crystal between her index fingers and closed her eyes. She muttered something under her breath and the crystal started to glow. A voice filled the room, each word was echoed as the message was said.

"Shiei...let us see the phoenix...die."

Nuema held back a laugh. "That was incredibly stupid." She snapped her fingers, "Wait, I got something as well." She pulled a crystal similar in shape to Shiei's out of her pocket. This crystal was mainly clear, but it had a rainbow color of threads in it and felt burning hot in her hands.

She put the tips of the crystal between her fingertips and muttered a chant under her breath. The same voice filled the room with the same effect.

"...Delis...true form...or...a painful death."

Shiei scoffed, "That was even stupider."

Nuema shook her head, "Play yours again."

Shiei got ready to play her crystal again as did Nuema. When they were played together, the pauses were filled.

"Shiei, Delis, let us see the phoenix true form or die a painful death."

Nuema and Shiei looked at each other and Shiei left Nuema's house via the window in the room. '_Should I let Koenma know about this?'_

'_No, Shiei, I'm tired of moving all the time...'_

When they had gotten far from Nuema's house, Kurama sighed. "I didn't want to say this in front of other person and Nuema, but...Koenma said we need to watch a Nuema, and a fire demon called Shiei."

Hiei stopped and looked up at Kurama. "What!" He closed his eyes and sighed, "I thought the detective still had to find that demon Delis."

"He does, but Koenma said we have to do these two cases now. I was supposed to tell you when I saw you and Yusuke is going to tell Kuwabara."

"Hn, like I care about the idiots. Did he say why we had to watch the ningen and that demon?"

"Yes he did..."

_Yusuke and Kurama walked into a clearing, there was only one other person in the clearing, Koenma._

"_Shouldn't Hiei and Kuwabara be here was well?" Yusuke asked as he looked around the clearing, expecting to see the other two jump out of a tree or something._

"_You can tell them next time you see them."_

"_Okay, whatever, what's the deal?"_

"_I have a new case for you Yusuke. There's a human girl with fierce spirit abilities in the area, rivaling some of the lower B_ _class demons in power, don't let that fool you though, she could probably beat you two up. Some of the lower ranking demon's have recently escaped Makai and have been hunting her and her family since she was six. I've never had the ability to send a spirit detective out to help her, until now. I'd like you to make sure she stays safe and alive, her life is very important to the survival of all three worlds."_

"_Really, and what is her name?"_

"_Nuema, I believe you have already met her under the name of Zaira. There is another demon I told to help out, but things are starting to get beyond even her and Nuema's control. You two are to help this demon out as needed."_

"_And her name is?"_

"_Shiei, she looks a lot like Hiei, they could actually be mistaken for twins, even in personality."_

"_Great, another Hiei...just what I needed."_

"_I'm counting on you Yusuke, don't mess this up, and find Delis soon, I don't want my father to find out I let an S class demon into human world."_


	9. Spirit World

_**Spirit World**_

Nuema walked out of her house. There was a light fog and the sun was barely starting to rise. She walked along the streets and walked into the park. She took a path and wound up in a clearing by herself. Nuema closed her eyes, slowly her form became mist and disappeared from sight into the fog.

Nuema slowly appeared in a hallway in spirit world a few hours later. It was empty, she smirked and walked down the hallway and stopped once she reached a set of large oak doors, they opened, showing a large room with a desk in it. Behind it sat King Enma Junior. The toddler looked up.

"Hello, Nuema."

"Hi."

"I hope you don't mind, but I got some help for you..." Nuema sent Koenma a glare that plainly said she wasn't happy. "You've lived in every continent the world over in the past nine years. You need to stay here for as long as can be managed. I told Yusuke to help you out."

Nuema gave Koenma a death glare. "Just him?"

"Kurama, Hiei and Kuwabara too."

"Hn! You very well I hate help with my own problems. It was bad enough when you told Shiei she had to help me!"

"Yes, I know, but I can't sit back and let this continue as it has."

"Hn!" Nuema glared at Koenma and walked out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. She walked down a few corridors and stopped in front of a different set of doors, silently closing them behind her as she walked in.

On the wall in front of her were ten TV screens, she took a seat in front of them and the screens flickered to life. Five of the screens were for Hiei, the other five for Shiei. One probably couldn't tell though, as all ten screens had both on them. Hiei and Shiei were talking, probably about two feet away from each other. Whatever Hiei had said suddenly made Shiei very angry. She glared at him and stormed off. Hiei sat on the ground and rested his head in his hands.

-Meanwhile, in Koenma's office-

Kurama poked his head around the door and saw Koenma, doing paper work, mumbling something under his breath. Kurama's hearing caught the words, "Why do I even bother? I always manage to get yelled at."

"Koenma?"

Koenma looked up at Kurama, "Oh, hello. Would you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"I'd like you to gone down to the probation room. Nuema's in there, just talk to her, she was in a very bad mood when she left."

"Do you know why?"

"I told her about assigning you, and the other three to help her out..."

"I see...I'll see what I can do."

Kurama walked into the probation room and saw no one there. "I thought Koenma said she was in here..." He took a few careful sniffs, "She was in here, but...why does it smell of demon world as well?"

Kurama looked at the screens. He saw Hiei resting in a tree and Shiei on the branch above Hiei, they seemed to be having a glaring contest. "I guess she is Shiei..."


	10. Meet Delis

_**Meet Delis**_

The next day, Nuema was standing in the kitchen of her house, opening the freezer. Shiei was sitting at the table, arms crossed and watching Nuema closely.

"Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry?"

"Chocolate."

Nuema and pulled two containers out of the freezer and tossed one of them to Shiei and a spoon. Nuema closed the freezer and leaned against a counter, spoon in hand and opened her container, revealing that it was a small container of chocolate ice cream. Shiei had a similar container. Both ate their ice cream in silence for a few moments.

"I'm going to have to bash Koenma's head in one of these days."

Shiei paused in eating her ice cream and smirked, "Let me know the time and I'll join you." After a few more spoonfuls she asked a two-word question, "Why though?"

"He got his detective and his friends to 'protect' me."

"All guys?"

"That and the detective is a pervert, another is a moron. I care not about the other two."

"Really."

Nuema shrugged and took another spoonful of ice cream before answering. "Dealing with one of them is almost like dealing with you, I'd actually say he was your twin if I didn't know better. The other is...tolerable."

"I see." Shiei put her empty ice cream container on the table in front of herself, the spoon in it. Nuema cocked an eye brow at this and looked down at her own container, which was about half full.

Nuema was about to make a comment along the lines of "and I thought I ate ice cream fast," when something flew in through the window. Broken glass flew to the floor, making deep scratches in the tile. A large rock broke the ceramic tile that it landed on. There was a crystal tied to it that was mainly clear except for the multi-color threads in it.

Nuema looked at the crystal for a few seconds and then placed her ice cream container haphazardly on the edge of the counter. She picked up the rocked and pulled the crystal off of it. She placed her index fingers on the ends of the crystal and muttered a brief chant. A voice filled the room.

"White phoenix, show yourself, or human's family dies. Come to the marked warehouse."

Nuema's brows furrowed at the message.

"They want her to take over."

Nuema nodded, "I know..." she sighed and pocketed the crystal and ran out of her house. Shiei got out of her chair and followed Nuema.

Outside, the gang was searching for Delis. Yusuke hadn't filled Kuwabara on the new case yet and was doing so now.

"Basically all we gotta do is keep Nuema out of trouble."

"I see."

Just then, they noticed Nuema run past them on the other side of the street, Shiei following after her.

"Hey...wasn't that the girl we need to be protecting?"

"Yes."

"And wasn't that a demon chasing her?"

"Eh...yeah...b-" Kurama was about to say Shiei wasn't going to kill Nuema when Kuwabara ran off after the two. Yusuke slapped his forehead.

"Kuwabara you dumb ass!" He ran off after Kuwabara, leaving Kurama and Hiei. Hiei was glaring at Kuwabara's back and Kurama was rolling his eyes.

"I guess we should go after them."

"Hn. Why should we help the idiots?"

"Because...what if Nuema is going to need help? I don't think Shiei would be following her otherwise."

Hiei crossed his arms. "If there is any trouble, Shiei should be strong enough to handle it. You can go if you want, but I'm not, I'm going to continue searching for Delis." Hiei smirked as Kurama rolled his eyes and left before running off top speed after Shiei, taking all the shortcuts he could.

Shiei had followed Nuema into an empty warehouse with a strange, nearly demonic, energy coming from it. There was a maze of corridors in the warehouse and Shiei followed Nuema's spirit energy after she lost sight of the Nuema. Shiei stopped at a dead end, barely in time to keep herself from running into a wall. Shiei heard footsteps behind her and she turned around facing the gang minus one fire demon.

"Where's Nuema?"

Shiei glared at them and saw Hiei come up behind the group, "Hn!" With that she ran the three and then Hiei. Hiei was the only one who could have stopped her, but he didn't even try to.

"Why did you do that, shrimp?"

"Listen fool, that demon doesn't pose a threat to Nuema, besides chasing down that demon was not on my agenda for being here."

"Well its on ours, Hiei!"

Hiei looked over at Yusuke, "I thought yours was finding Nuema."

"She can help us with that!"

"Hn, whatever, I don't care." Hiei then ran down the corridor, after Shiei. He had come here to find Delis, who was Nuema according to his knowledge, and Shiei knew where to find both it seemed.

Hiei ran into a room and looked around, "_Where would I hide?"_ He noticed a large shadow in the room and smirked, walking over to it.

"Shiei, come out."

There was an evil sounding snicker and something black ran past Hiei. He felt something poke him in the back of the neck, that something was sharp and pointy. Hiei growled and his eyes narrowed into a glare. He turned around to face Shiei, who was smirking. She snickered and put her katana back in its sheath.

"I never thought it would be that easy."

"Hn. Do you know where the baka ningen onna is?"

Shiei's red eyes rolled at Hiei's statement before staring over at a door. "In there, but be careful, she's not herself right now." With that Shiei disappeared into the shadows. '_Whatever you do, don't help, or even fight at all, I'm warning you now.'_

Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara ran into the room. Hiei regarded them coldly before walking across the room and walking through the door Shiei had pointed out earlier. Kurama followed Hiei. Yusuke and Kuwabara looked at each other before walking through the door.

The next room was very large. The other striking feature was it occupants. There were about two hundred or so demons in the room. They were circled around one demon. She had a katana with an odd sort of hilt. Her long purple hair danced and trailed behind as she moved. There was a large demon on the far side of the room. He was smirking as he watched the demon.

Her sword passed through several demons, but they kept reforming. It was obvious that she was going to tire before the demons were dead.

"Only your mastered technique can save you now, white phoenix."

The demon's head snapped up. She continued to fight even though her gold eyes were trained on the large demon.

"The Takabu is an honor to have used against you. I won't give you such a privilege." She snickered and smirked sadistically, "But I'll tell you what, I'll honor you with second best, it should be more than enough to do the job."

Yusuke stared at the demon in shock, something Koenma had told him echoed in his mind. '_Her name is Delis, Delis Nuema. We don't know what she looks like, except she is a master of the Takabu..._ '_The Takabu...that person has mastered it...she must be Delis...'_

Delis brought her sword up, so the blade would be perpendicular to the ground. She brought her index finger of her free hand to the tip of the katana's blade. A white fire formed around the blade. The hilt wavered and when it became 'solid' again, it was orange and tapered from the hilt to a dollop shape at the end of the hilt. In the dollop was a red and orange stone. At the base of the blade were four talon's in the same formation a as bird's would be.

Delis sliced her sword in the air. As the fire moved, some sparkles stayed in the air. After she made five swings, the sparkles glowed yellow and condensed, forming a large tiger. The tail was still attached to the blade and a final swing freed the tiger completely.

The gang, conveniently missing Hiei, looked from Delis to the tiger. Delis had used a lot of spirit energy; a normal person would be useless after using that much energy, but she looked perfectly able to fight some more.

The tiger roared and released several sparks of energy. The sparks headed, and hit, each demon in the middle of the room, anyone on the edges like the gang and the large demon, were safe. Each of the demons faded, until one was left, a very familiar short male fire demon with a black cloak.

Everyone could sense that Hiei's spirit energy was fading fast, the probable cause being the spark that was attached to him. His katana was lying forlorn on the ground. Something was thrown in the path of the spark. The split second disturbance caused the spark to disappear. The object turned out to be a katana which landed on the ground and spun on the floor for a few seconds before lying still.

The tiger roared and disappeared, turning into sparkles which Delis's sword absorbed. Delis closed her eyes, "_I've done my job..._" Everyone's eyes widened as Delis's long purple hair shortened as it whirled around her body and changed from purple to brown. Delis became shorter, from looking about seven foot to about five and a half. The clothes changed to an outfit easily recognized as Nuema's own. When Delis's eyes opened they were an unnaturally cold quick silver.

Everyone had some form of shock on their faces, except for Hiei who was out cold lying on the floor. Yusuke was pissed, the demon they had been searching for, for so long had turned out to be right under their noses the whole time!

If they had been shocked to see Delis turn out to be Nuema, they were a bit more surprised to see the demon that had been chasing Nuema walk out from the shadows where the sword had been thrown from. Shiei walked over to Nuema with her hands in her pockets and glared at Hiei.

"Stupid idiot, I thought I had warned him not to intervene," She muttered under her breath.

Nuema gave a null reaction, save for muttering something under her breath, "He obviously didn't take your warning seriously, Shiei..."

"Hn."

Everyone had gotten out of their varying stages of stupor by this point, or at least Kurama had.

"Nuema...you have a-"

"Spirit demon half?...Yes." Nuema walked over to Hiei and put a hand on his shoulder, said appendage glowed gold. After a moment she stood up and stared flatly down at Hiei. He sat up and looked around then up at Nuema, he glared. "Maybe next time you are warned not to help Delis, you'll listen. She doesn't take kindly to people that interfere in her own affairs." This sent everyone back into shock...

"Hn, I'm alive aren't I?" ...except for Hiei, and Shiei.

Nuema pointed to the mysterious katana on the ground. "If it wasn't for that, you wouldn't be." She turned on her heels and walked to a stair case on the other side of the room.

By this time, Yusuke had gotten over his own shock and annoy-ment.

"Nuema! Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Nuema looked back at him, there was a slight smile on her face, so slight, one could barely notice it. "Up the stairs, my parents are in here and I'd like to find them rather quickly."

"Your parents?"

"Yep." Nuema nodded and then turned around to run up the stairs. Yusuke made to follow her, but Shiei stopped him.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!"

Shiei nonchalantly raised a hand and the thrown katana flew into it, hilt first. She then casually lifted the blade to Yusuke's throat.

"Hn. She'll be down soon, no need to follow."

Yusuke sweat dropped. "Okay, fine...mind taking you sword away from my throat?"

"Hn." Shiei didn't show any signs that she was going to do so.

"You know Shiei, you really should listen. You're in enough trouble as it is."

"Hn." This time, with that particular response, Shiei sheathed her sword. She turned to glare at the person who had spoke.

"Ah!" The blue haired person behind Shiei shrieked slightly and backed up several feet. Shiei smirked, scaring people was so much fun.

"Botan?"

"The one and only" Botan was trying to sound chipper, but also trying not to look at the double glare she was getting from Shiei and Hiei.

"What're you doing here, Botan?"

"Well...Master Koenma is getting impatient for you to find Delis."

"We already found her, she'll be back-"

"About now, right behind you, but she would like to get her parents safely home first."

Everyone turned around to face Nuema. She was standing in front of the staircase, behind her were two people. Both appeared to be rather young, probably only in their early thirties.

Her mom and dad looked at her, "Zaira, are these your friends?"

"Yes..."

Her parent's exchanged a glance, "Okay, why don't you stay here and talk with them, we can go home by ourselves."

Nuema nodded, "Okay, if you go out those doors and follow the yellow path, you should be able to get out, and be near the flower shop."

Her parents nodded and left the room. Two questions burst forth from the room.

"How old are they?"

"What yellow path?"

The first was asked by Yusuke, the second by the more practical Kurama.

"They're 33 and 35..." Nuema then looked at Kurama, "The yellow path I made a few seconds ago..."

Kurama nodded, that had been enough for him, however... "33 and 35!"

Yusuke probably would have continued with his statement, but Nuema cut him off with a glare colder than one Hiei or Shiei were known to give, '_Don't let your mind go there for even a second...'_

"Uh right, why don't we go to Koenma's office now? Once we find Delis that is."

Yusuke looked over to Botan, "Delis is here, let's go."

Botan looked confused, "Uh...right! Okay then!"


	11. Two more to the crew

_**Two more to the Crew**_

In the underworld, Koenma was sitting behind his desk which had very few papers on it, for once. The room in front of him was somewhat crowded with seven people in it. In front of the desk was Nuema.

"Nuema! Why didn't you tell me about Delis?"

"I didn't think it necessary at the time...it wasn't like she was going to take control and go on a massive human killing spree." As she made the last part of her statement she looked

"She's an S class demon! I can't have her running around human world! Speaking of which, how did she get through my barrier?"

"What barrier?"

"The one I formed to keep S and A class demons in demon world a very long time ago."

"Hold on, I'll ask..." Nuema stood still and closed her eyes. "_Oi...Delis?_"

'_What is it?'_

"_Koenma-kun wants to know how you got through the barrier if you're an S class demon."_

'_I don't have a clue, maybe it's the way I got of Demon world and I didn't have to pass through that stupid barrier.'_

"_Uh...okay...whatever."_

Nuema opened her eyes, "Delis says she doesn't have a clue."

"I see, she also says she isn't going to kill and humans, right?"

'_Why would I sully my blade on such a pathetic opponent?'_

Nuema covered her mouth with a hand to prevent herself from laughing, "She says she wouldn't want to sully her blade on such a pathetic opponent."

"And that means?"

'_I won't kill any of those idiotic humans.'_

Nuema sighed, she hated playing monkey in the middle, "She says she won't, so she won't, and I wouldn't let her take control long enough to do so."

"I'd like to keep an eye on her, just to be safe."

Nuema felt Delis grow angry and frowned at Koenma. "Doubting her word, isn't a good idea...it becomes hard to keep control."

Koenma sighed, "And a better eye on you, Nuema. Now, let me finish this, " He added hastily when Nuema glared at him., "these demons that are after you seem to be getting less fearless and more daring as time passes. I don't doubt you skills, or Shiei's, but they could start killing humans next and force your guard down so then they can kill you. I'd like you to help out those four as needed, so you would be in less danger."

Shiei looked at Koenma sharply, "And what about me?"

"You too Shiei, I'll drop your second probation rule, but you still have to follow the first."

"Hn. Whatever."

Nuema rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say, sir," She held a hint of a mocking tone in her voice. "Am I free to go? I need to see how my parents are doing."

"Yes, you may go, Botan, take her back to human world."

Botan, who had been eyeing Shiei and Hiei warily, standing on the other side of the room snapped to attention, "Yes, sir!" "_Phew, now I can get away from those two._" She left Koenma's office and Nuema followed.

Kuwabara, who had been looking between Hiei and Shiei for the past ten minutes spoke up, "I didn't know that the shrimp had a shrimp of a twin sister!"

Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke flinched slightly, thinking of Yukina. Hiei glared at Kuwabara, while Shiei stared at Kuwabara as if he was a moron.

"What stupidity do you blather about now?"

"Her!" Kuwabara pointed to Shiei. Yusuke and Kurama fell face first into the floor. Hiei had to keep himself from following suit while Shiei merely rolled her eyes. Kuwabara looked at everyone confused and even Koenma's head was resting on his desk. "Come on, they look so much alike!"

Shiei glared at Kuwabara, "We're not related, moron. And only if you have a death wish you will continue to call me a shrimp."


	12. Arguments at Dusk

Arguments at Dusk 

It was now spring, nothing much had happened since November, except for a few insignificant cases that Yusuke could do by himself which he always did. Shiei and Hiei hung around the woods near Nuema's house and they usually only came out to get ice cream, or as they had termed it "sweet snow". Kurama barely left his house for his mother had been plagued by mysterious dreams and was constantly losing her strength.

It was history class, first thing in the morning; normally Kurama was wide-awake like a good student, however today he could barely keep his eyes open.

"Mr. Minamino?" That was the third time his teacher had called his name in two minutes. Each time the teacher got the same response, nothing. His teacher came over and slammed a hand on Kurama's desk. Kurama looked up at the teacher, bleary eyed. "Mr. Minamino, is something wrong?"

"No, I'm just a little tired is all."

"Okay, just try and stay awake. Now, as I was saying, I have a new group project for the class," several students brightened up, "I'm assigning the group of four and one group of two." Faces fell and there were a few groans. After the groups were assigned, the members were allowed to move next to each other. Nuema turned her chair around to face the tired Kurama.

"You look like you haven't slept in ages, Shuuichi."

"..." Kurama nodded slightly, Nuema was right. He hadn't slept well because his mother had taken ill and he was helping her a lot.

By the end of the period they had discovered the project was due the next day. Nuema and Kurama had agreed to work on it after school but Kurama refused to work anywhere else but his house because he wanted to keep an eye on his mother. Kurama was also completely awake.

Once they got inside his house Kurama uncharacteristically dropped his school bag anywhere in the house and walked to a room in the house. Nuema dropped her bag at all, not caring about it at all and followed Kurama's path, but a little less urgently. She was getting a bad feeling about the room from her sixth sense.

She walked through the open door and watched Kurama talk to a bed-ridden woman that looked young but was very weak giving her an aged appearance. Nuema saw a dim black aura around her which was unnerving her and she looked around the room.

"Mother, how have you been today?"

"I'm fine, Shuuichi. I just feel extremely tired." She turned and looked at Nuema, who had moved into the doorframe, with half opened eyes, "You brought a friend with you?"

"Yes, mother, we're working on a school project."

"Well, don't let me distract you from your work, I'll just take a nap." Kurama's mother closed her eyes and Nuema saw that the dim glow became stronger. She felt cold and put a hand on the door frame for support, as she felt weakened suddenly. Kurama turned to leave and saw Nuema. He quickly helped her to a chair nearby.

"Is there something wrong, Nuema?"

"Yes, I'm afraid." She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Any fool with spirit awareness or a sixth sense could sense her energy had plummeted. Kurama watched Nuema, his green eyes flooded with concern; this is how things had started with his mother.

"What?"

"I don't know how to explain this to you."

"Just try," Kurama sat on the floor.

"First off, you should know I'm a psychic. I have a highly tuned sixth sense, a lot greater than the one Kuwabara has. I can see things most people with sixth senses or even spirit awareness can. My body and mind have become in tune with the tenth dimension, the minds dimension, anything on it I can see and feel."

"I understand."

"There are three types of aura, spirit energy, which only a select few can use. A battle aura or bloodlust which any fool can sense, but only some can see. Then there is something called the psychic's aura. It can only be seen and used by those that are in tune with the tenth dimension. This type of aura can trap matter, change it if one has honed their skills with it, affect even the way people feel and act. It can also be used to move matter. Your mother, unfortunately, is covered by one of these auras."

"Is it what is causing this to my human mother?"

"Yes. Unfortunately I can only see it, I can't dissipate it. Its effect is to draw her energy."

"But if it is only to draw her energy, then why did it draw yours?"

"Everyone has there own signal, so to call it, on the sixth dimension and you need to get the 'signal' correct to effect only that person. An aura like that one requires a broader set of 'signals' to work on. If the 'signal' is exact for an aura I'm not effected that much, but with a broader set of signals I'm effected in the same way as well. The effects seem to be pertained only to that room, however." Nuema stood up out of the chair feeling better than she had a few minutes ago and walked over to the door to Kurama's mother's room. Her eyes widened. Kurama had followed her.

"What is it that you see?"

"The room, its coated in that aura. Dark threads of aura are scattered everywhere. Its worse than I thought it would be originally, its become a black hole for spirit energy." Nuema backed away from the room, scared slightly by what she saw. How long had this been happening? How long could she possibly last? Nuema looked over at Kurama, who unfortunately couldn't see a thing out of place, but his eyes betrayed his concern. Nuema closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to concentrate. Her own psychic's aura formed around the dark aura, tainting it with a faint yellow glow.

She was using a lot of energy to do it, but she got the dark energy to disappear. Nuema opened her eyes and smiled seeing the room cleared and even the aura around the woman was faint. She fell forward but stopped herself. Kurama looked over at Nuema.

"What happened?"

"I, got rid of most of the aura, she should be able to recover for a little while before it comes back."

"What about you?"

"Heh, there's a forest is there not? Besides you have a lot of plants in your house." Kurama didn't understand the statement but saw some energy sparkles flying in from all over the house and drifting to either Nuema or his mother. Hundreds would be a better term than 'some'. Nuema stood up. "I've done as much for your mother as I can. We should get the project done."

"Would you teach me how to do that?"

"What, replace spirit energy from an outside source?"

"Yes."

"Sure. Over the weekend, along with another skill you should be able to learn."

A few hours later the project was done and Nuema had to go home. It was almost sunset. Nuema ran to her house, almost as if the reddening sky would burn her up if she stayed outside for too long.

There were two voices ringing in the forest just as the sunset ended, yet there was still light out. In the center of the forest Hiei and Shiei were arguing, being silent while glaring, yelling again, and so on.

After a few minutes of this, Shiei and Hiei walked in opposite directions. Shiei jumped into a tree while Hiei stayed on the ground. After a few minutes Shiei came to Nuema's house. She opened the window to Nuema's room and jumped in silently.

Nuema looked up from the picture she was drawing. It took a lot of effort for her not to wince. It was extremely apparent to her, at least, that Shiei was pissed. There was almost a red cloud of anger around her.

"Konnichi'wa, Shiei."

"Hn."

"Tell me, what happened to you to make you so pissed?"

Shiei crossed her arms and sat on the floor looking disgruntled at the very thought. "Hn. Take a guess." Shiei's flaming red eyes gave Nuema a brief glare before looking at the floor to her side.

This time Nuema did wince at Shiei's anger, and she might have tried to make a sarcastic comment, but she figured Shiei was too pissed to tolerate it. She went back to drawing while pretending to think. After a moment or two, "Hiei, Hiei pissed you off."

Shiei growled and looked up at Nuema and glared, "Hn."

"What did he do?"

"He sat down next to me during sunset, stupid baka."

Nuema looked dubious but was facing the wall as the look might have earned her getting hit by a fire ball, "You were actually awake enough to tell that?"

Shiei glared at Nuema's back, "What's that supposed to mean? Of course I was awake! And look at me while you're talking to me!"

Nuema turned around in her seat to face Shiei's glare, this time she remained neutral to it, "You've always had a knack for zoning out during a sunset, someone could yell in your ear and you wouldn't know it."

"So?"

"I'm just saying maybe you sat next to him and don't remember."

"Now why would I do that?"

"Not on purpose, obviously. Maybe both of you zoned out, and sat down where you were, not noticing the other. Hiei is so similar to you, I'm willing to bet he zones out as well."

Shiei looked thoughtful for a second, "I guess that could be true..." Her eyes narrowed again once she realized what she had said, "but it was most definitely Hiei's fault."

Nuema shook her head, recognizing Shiei's trademark stubbornness, "You know, Shiei, someday you and Hiei might kill each other in one of your arguments, and you'll be too stubborn to admit you died."

Shiei glared at the statement, most would have flinched from it for usually it meant an untimely and painful demise, but Nuema had gained her cool back and her quick silver eyes remained calm, "Watch what you say, ningen."

"I'm just saying you're stubborn."

"Hn!" Shiei opened the window again and left. Funnily enough the temperature in the room cooled off a good fifteen degrees.


	13. Meet the Kiram

Meet the Kiram 

On Saturday, Kurama stood in a clearing in the forest near the part. There was a minor path connected from the clearing to the park. He started to tap his foot with impatience.

Nuema ran up the path and stopped at the entrance to the clearing.

"Sorry, I was held up." Kurama shrugged and stopped tapping his foot. Nuema sighed, "What do you want to learn first? Telepathy or Spirit Energy revival?"

"Telepathy? I thought you said something I could learn."

"You can. Any one with two brain cells to rub together that can use spirit energy can learn it."

"So Kuwabara could as well?"

Nuema looked amused, "Kuwabara has two brain cells? I didn't know he was that smart. But he does have the ability sense he has a sixth sense."

Kurama blinked at her statement, "How about Yusuke?"

Nuema sighed, "Make it ten brain cells to rub together then. I don't think he could, most likely not, but I'm certain that you could. Back to my original question."

"I'll try to learn telepathy first, it would be useful."

"Yes, it is extremely useful." Nuema had to think for a few minutes before she thought she had a way to teach him how to so he could understand, it wouldn't be that difficult for him to understand anything but she had to make sure she wasn't forgetting something. "Okay, this is just a bit of information to start you off, if you send a telepathic message to a specific target it takes more focus and mental strength. Also, the greater the distance the more mental strength you need."

"I understood that." Kurama judged the distance between him and Nuema, a yard, it couldn't be that hard, right?

"Good. Now, think of a message, but try and broadcast it outside of your mind, and if you can try and direct it to me."

'_Like this?'_

Nuema blinked, he had succeeded on his first try, not something she had expected. 'Yes_, like that.'_

After Kurama had sent the telepathic message he had felt considerably weaker. After all, he didn't have a jagan eye, or highly tuned sixth sense to help him out. Nuema looked over at him and raised a hand nonchalantly in his direction. Several sparks of energy came from the forest and entered Kurama's body, reviving his spirit energy. He looked up at Nuema questioningly. "A version of spirit energy revival without using your own. You can take it from the environment itself, which actually has a higher concentration than most humans or animals for that matter, even dirt does. The best would be from even one plant. Plants have the highest concentration of spirit energy on the planet. So you can take a lot from them and they'll actually recover in seconds."

Kurama nodded at this new bit of information, how convenient that he happened to control plants. He looked around at the trees and experimented a little, he managed to draw the familiar sparks of energy from the plants but controlling them was a different matter entirely. Nuema smirked, "Focus your mind and think of a general direction to where you want them to go."

Kurama nodded and brought them into the clearing he blinked and tried to get them into a smaller space succeeding after a while. He blinked and held his head, the sparks of energy faded away. His spirit energy had remained intake, but he felt drained.

"You learn faster than I thought you would."

"What do you mean?"

"Without a highly tuned sixth sense like myself, a weaker sixth sense like Kuwabara, or a jagan eye like Hiei and Shiei, I wasn't expecting you to pick up so quickly." She walked over to Kurama, a yellow glow formed around her hand and she touched Kurama's forehead and brought her hand back to her side, the glow subsiding. "These tricks take mental effort more than energy and drain the mind, how well you use them depends more on your mental strength. However, I'm surprised you didn't pass out from using both so quickly after the other for the first time, most normal people would have."

Kurama nodded, he felt less drained, but Nuema used these tricks so off-handedly, how much mental strength did she have? He suddenly looked to his right. Nuema blinked in the same direction. Her eyes widened and she ran off, Kurama followed her. Both of them had sensed a small blip of energy that was demonic in its origin.

When they reached the source of the energy they found a tiny creature. It was completely black. It had demonic looking eyes, a dark red in color. It had miniature dark purple wings that looked too small to lift the creature into the air. The ends of its limps were covered in dark purple flames. There was a symbol of a dark purple flame on its forehead between its two eyes.

Nuema ran over to tiny creature, its red eyes were almost lifeless. She looked down at in concern, holding it the way one would a baby. There were several small cuts on its skin.

'_Nuema, what happened to it?'_ A voice filled Nuema's head from the back of her mind

"_I dunno. But I will find out Delis._"

'You better had' 

"Nuema?" Nuema broke out of her mental conversation with Delis to look at Kurama who had called her name for the third time.

"What, Kurama?"

"What is that thing?"

Nuema paused and stared down at the creature she was holding, trying to think of a feasible answer.

"Kurama! Nuema! There you two are!" Nuema and Kurama looked up and saw Botan flying down towards them on her oar. She landed on the ground and her oar disappeared. "I've been looking all over for you two."

Nuema cocked an eyebrow in curiosity, "Why?"

"Lord Koenma wanted to talk to the Spirit Detectives in the underworld. He has a new case, a big one."

In Spirit World, Nuema and Kurama walked into Koenma's office. Nuema was still carrying the creature, she leaned against a wall, glaring at anyone who gave her a questioning glance.

"Okay, since everyone is here, I'll explain the mission." Everyone looked at the tiny toddler in the rather cramped office. "In demon world there is a race called the Kiram. There are only fifty or so. Their existence in Makai is extremely important to the Makai's. The Kiram have gone missing, we believe they may be in the ningenkai. Find them before it is too late."

"So basically, we have to find fifty of these Kiram things before Demon World is destroyed?"

"Yes, Yusuke, but you only have a week."

"What!"

"That's how long Makai can last without the Kiram, but it should be easy enough to find them."

"But one week!" Yusuke looked around the room at everyone. Kuwabara looked as annoyed as he was. Hiei and Shiei looked annoyed and concerned. Kurama was basically neutral but he was somewhat concerned. Nuema was looking at the creature she was holding. "Nuema what is that thing, and were you paying attention at all?"

Nuema glared at Yusuke, "I was paying attention, and I'm holding part of your mission. This is a Kiram."

"That's a Kiram? But I thought they were missing."

Nuema rolled her eyes, "You obviously don't know much about the Kiram. They have psychic powers greater than my own or even Delis's. They don't develop them but use the unconsciously. When in danger the one with the strongest powers teleports away to find the guardian if she isn't there to get help."

"Oh, wait, how do you know so much?"

Kurama spoke up, he managed to follow what Nuema had said, "I assume you are the guardian?"

Koenma spoke up next. "Yes she is, remember I told you her life or death was important to the existence to the three worlds. Without the Kiram Makai goes, causing a chain reaction destroying the rest of the worlds."

"Well some fine job of protecting."

"Idiot, I can't be in the Makai all the time, I'm a human, not welcome there. This used to be Delis's job, but since she can't be in control all the time I've taken over for her. Besides, I created a powerful barrier of psychic aura, which could only be breached by a psychic with stronger power's than mine. Meaning lower A and higher."

"And how many of those are wandering around?"

"True there a lot of A and S class demons in Makai, but out of all of them only two had psychic powers. Delis and someone else."

"Oh I get it. So this someone else broke through and took the Kiram? But why take them to ningenkai?"

"Yes" Under her breath she muttered 'twit' so only a few could hear it. She then turned her attention to Koenma. "Have any mysterious, inexplicable earthquakes started in the Makai?"

"Yes..."

"And what about Human world?"

"Yes..."

"Spirit world?

"No."

"Good, we have a little less then twenty four hours. Shiei, Hiei, we'll be needing your jagan skills. Oh, the probable kidnappers are a group of thieves that Delis used to lead. I might have some useful information if that's the case."


	14. Beginning Of The End?

Beginning of the End? 

The gang stopped in front of a large cave system that gave off an evil aura. Hiei, Shiei, Kurama, Nuema and Yusuke had completely neutral expressions. However Kuwabara's face looked completely freaked out.

"Are you sure we're at the right place?"

Shiei turned her hand and glared at Kuwabara. Her bandana was off, revealing a jagan eye, "Do you doubt my jagan skills?"

Kuwabara's face looked even more scared and he shook his head vehemently, "No!"

"Hn."

They all walked into the cave, Kuwabara looked around, trying to see through the darkness. A few minutes later Shiei ran in front of Kuwabara, her eyes were glowing a royal blue shade and her purple jagan eye was glowing the same color. Kuwabara let out a loud scream that sounded oddly...feminine. Everyone looked over at Kuwabara, well except for Hiei who was rolling his eyes.

"Man Kuwabara, you scream like a girl."

Shiei and Nuema glared at Yusuke, taking offense at what he said.

"What is that supposed to me, Yusuke?" Nuema's voice was dangerously low.

"Yes, watch what you say, detective." Shiei's voice had a faint trace of a growl and was dangerous in and of itself.

"Yusuke looked slightly scared of the combined anger of Nuema and Shiei, "Okay." After a moments thought, "Hey, did anyone else notice that it just got a lot warmer in here?"

Kuwabara nodded and Kurama looked around, "The temperature did rise rapidly after your statement, Yusuke." Hiei made no comment but looked at Shiei. Nuema stopped glaring at Kuwabara.

'_Shiei, cool it.'_

Shiei looked at Nuema and glared, '_Hn, fine. But if the detective keeps up his stupidity act, don't expect him to stay conscious or alive.'_

Nuema mentally rolled her eyes, '_Whatever...and who said it was an act? He really is a moron.'_

'_All the more reason for his demise.'_

Evil laughter filled the cave, spirit fires lit up on the walls, showing they were in a large room. There was only one way to go, forward, which was conveniently blocked by white flames. Someone dropped from the ceiling. She was wearing a pair of black shorts that seemed to be made of an animal skin. She had a skin tight shirt made of the same material that was tied together in the back. Her hair was short and dark blue and she had pale eyes.

She smirked as she looked at the group, an evil glint showed in her eyes. "My name is Agashi, if you want the Kiram, one of you will have to fight me."

"I'm not fighting her," said Kuwabara since it was against his rules.

Agashi glared at Kuwabara. "Let me explain this since no one else will and if you don't know what I'm about to say, its too bad, it still applies. To get to the Kiram one of you will fight one of us. No one fights twice. If three of you lose they will die. Each time a fight is finished your group will continue down to fight the next opponent, and we're a group of females."

Kuwabara looked slightly annoyed since it was against his ethics to fight girls, but he might have to fight a girl to finish the mission. He really didn't have the option to forfeit either. Kuwabara walked away from the group. Yusuke looked at him as if he had gone mad, Kurama seemed somewhat confused for he had heard of Kuwabara's honor code as had Hiei who just didn't care what the human did, so he had an expression of uncaring. As did Shiei and Nuema, but they hadn't heard of Kuwabara's honor code.

"I'll fight you." Under his breath he muttered, "Might as well get it over with sooner then later."

From behind him Nuema called out, "Just watch your back, Agashi uses moves focused on stealing her opponent's energy."

"Don't sound like its your execution, I won't kill you, your loss has a high chance of doing that for me."

"Enough already! Let's just get this over with." Kuwabara got into a fighting stance; he was about to form his spirit sword when he decided not to. 'I'll save that for when I need it. She doesn't seem to have a weapon, it wouldn't be fair.' Instead he opted to try and punch Agashi, keyword was try.

Agashi stifled a yawn as Kuwabara charged at her. Just before his punch would have hit Agashi, she raised a hand and caught his fist. Simultaneously, she threw her own punch at Kuwabara as he was caught. A white flame had formed around both hands by this point.

When Agashi's fist collided with Kuwabara's chest, she let go of Kuwabara's fist and he flew backwards, crashing into a cave wall. Loose rocks were jolted out of their place and landed on Kuwabara's head. As he had flown backwards, he had continuously lost some of his spirit energy, a glimmering trail of yellow sparkles of spirit energy marked his flight path. After a few moments the trail vanished along with the dust created by the falling rocks.

After a few more moments passed, Kuwabara stood slowly from the rubble. There were a few bruises on his skin. His left hand was burned where Agashi had caught it and where the flames had touched. Where Agashi had punched him his shirt had been burned off and the revealed skin had been burned. His black eyes said he was clearly in a lot of pain. Kuwabara clenched his left hand, 'Darn, that was my sword hand too.'

Agashi watched Kuwabara struggle to stay up and not give into the pain she had dealt him. "_This was pathetic,"_ She pointed the palm of her hand a Kuwabara and a beam of energy shot from it and became wide enough to completely surround Kuwabara. It completely drained him of all energy that he didn't need to live.

Kuwabara collapsed from a lack of energy.

"I believe I win. This counts as a loss on your part. You may continue now." Agashi disappeared and the white flames disappeared showing the short path to the next room. Everyone ran over to Kuwabara, except Hiei and Shiei who stayed still and Nuema who walked. Nuema point the index and middle fingers of one hand at Kuwabara's body. The sparkles of energy that had faded before reappeared and gathered around Nuema's two fingers and entered Kuwabara's lithe form. After the energy in the air was used up, Nuema returned her hand to her side.

"Someone tow the moron along." She left through the newly opened passage and was followed by Hiei, Shiei and Kurama. Yusuke looked down at Kuwabara who had woken up.

"What happened?" 

"You lost, now come on!" Yusuke ran off in the direction the others had and was followed by a slightly unsteady Kuwabara.


	15. the Technique Stealer

_**The Technique Stealer**_

When Yusuke and Kuwabara entered the next room, they saw another female demon, wearing a similar outfit to Agashi's. Her hair was a dark green shade and she had red-orange eyes. She smirked as the others came into the room as the hole returned to solid rock.

Yusuke spoke first, "Let me guess, one of us has to fight against you now."

"That would be correct."

"Fine, then I'll fight you." Yusuke walked away from everyone else.

"Yusuke, I would advise discretion."

"Yeah, yeah, fox boy. Got any info on her Nuema?"

"Sorry, I've got none. She must have joined after Delis left."

"Alright then."

"Urameshi, you had better not lose."

"I'm not planning to lose." Although he sounded over confident, he was, being typical of himself. "Who are you?"

"Aika. Care to begin?" Although the statement was polite, her voice held a dangerous threat. Yusuke nodded and wondered about a vague plan of attack. Suddenly, a dart was flying at Yusuke. He quickly jumped up to avoid the dart. By doing so, however, the dart continued its flight which made it fly directly towards the group, namely Kurama.

Kurama moved to the side and managed to keep himself from harm, but not his hair. The small portion of red that was hit was instantly singed off. The dart hit the earthen wall behind him and the surrounding rock was melted slight. It cooled in a few seconds and it gained a slick appearance. The black dart slowly disappeared and a thick black liquid slid down the wall, burning a thick deep trail in the wall as it moved down.

"Hey! One, I wasn't ready and two, leave them out of this!"

"Its not my fault if you dodge an attack and it just happed to head towards them. And you said you were ready."

Yusuke suddenly looked very pissed. He ran towards Aika and tried to punch her. She twisted her torso so it was perpendicular to Yusuke and dodged that punch. But Yusuke then used his other arm and brought it into a fist.

Then the both started to trade blows, and it seemed like Yusuke was getting the better of Aika, then she started to overpower him, then Yusuke got the upper-hand. Yusuke got hit in the jaw and was sent flying a few yards. Before the dust could settle he was back on his feet. He raised a hand and rubbed the bruised part of his lower jaw. Yusuke used his thumb to wipe away a small trail of blood from the corner of his mouth.

His expression got more serious and he raised his hand almost in the shape of a fist, however his thumb was sticking up and his index finger was pointed at Aika. A dull white glow started to form around the tip of his finger. After the dull glow turned into a bright orb of light he pressed his thumb against the glowing index finger and the energy orb shot from his finger directly at Aika.

"Reigun!"

Aika didn't move a muscle to dodge the blast. As the blast was millimeters from her abdomen, she finally jumped backwards. The shot shattered and turned into sparks of energy. Yusuke started to charge up another shot to dodge a shot similar to the one from his spirit gun, but it was surrounded by a dark aura of energy.

"Dammit! That's my move!"

"My knowledge of techniques is vast." A sadistic smirk appeared on Aika's face.

A slight flint of anger showed in Yusuke's otherwise serious eyes as he crouched down lower to the ground. He pulled the elbow of his right hand back and a glow formed around a freshly formed fist of his right side. He punched the air with his glowing fist and hundreds of bullets flew from his hand towards Aika.

"Shot Gun!"

She dodged half of the ones that went towards her, got hit by a few others and caught more in her hands. She smirked and did exactly as Yusuke had a few seconds ago, only silently, however the bullets were covered in a black aura. Yusuke looked extremely annoyed and sent off another volley of spirit bullets. All the bullets collided and caused miniature explosions.

"Can't you do something of your own?" Yusuke shouted at her, sounding very annoyed.

"Yes, I can." Aika smirked and raised her left arm. Dark flames burst around said appendage covering it completely from elbow to fingertip. The flames around her fingers ended in a log point. In a quick movement she was behind Yusuke before he had proper time to react. She reached out her arm and stuck it through his chest without causing him harm. Yusuke's eyes widened and he felt cold. His skin paled and he collapsed. In Aika's hand was a glass-like orb with a dull white glow to it and a white flame inside.

She twisted her torso to face the others and glance at them sideways. She raised her hand, holding the orb delicately in her claws. She smirked evilly.

"It's amazing how delicate a soul is, no matter how strong its owner. I could shatter it if I wanted to." She smirked and closed her hand a white flame flew out of her hand a faded quickly. Shiei smirked, Hiei gave no reaction, Nuema was slightly bothered, Kurama was annoyed and Kuwabara was just plain pissed off.

"Hey! How come you did that to Urameshi's soul?" Kuwabara looked about ready to charge at Aika, despite his recent loss.

Kurama recognized this instantly. "Kuwabara, stay here." Kurama glared starting to raise a hand into his hair.

"Kurama, don't be stupid. Let me handle this, you'll need your energy." Heedless of Kurama's reaction she moved forward, "Aika, you haven't fooled me, so stop acting."

Aika frowned at Nuema, and she got a few glances at her back like she had lost it. Aika flicked her wrist downwards, opening her hand. Yusuke's soul fell between her index and middle fingers. "You're quite the smart one. Catch, although either way it's your second loss." Aika flung the orb at Nuema at shattering velocity and disappeared.

Using telekinetic energy to stop the soul gently she let it drop into an outstretched hand. She then turned to face the group with a "what did I do?" expression.

"How did you call her bluff? You said you didn't know her." Kurama, now reassured of the safety of his friend's soul, had become curious.

"The technique Aika used was probably stolen in a similar fashion to the way she took Yusuke's moves from a member that Delis did know. With such a move, one can't even bring the slightest nick to a soul."

She flung the orb at Yusuke's body, which is entered with almost no problem. Yusuke sat up rubbing his head mere moments later.

"What the happened?"

"You lost." Just then the door opened, telling them to continue.


	16. Battle of the Earth

!-Begin Chapter Sixteen-!

_**Battle of the Earth**_

They walked through the door to the next battle room. Standing in the middle of the room was a slender female. She was wearing a dark purple and blood red stained shirt, the right side of her shirt was sleeveless while the left had a long sleeve. On her right arm was a black tattoo of sorts that depicted vines with flowers on them. Her pants were black and the left leg was cut off around her knee. On her feet was a pair of worn black sandals. On her back was a set of bat-like wings that were dark in color and blood stained. Her black hair was short to account for her large demonic wings.

"My name is Ayukai. Which one of you goes by the name Kurama?"

Kurama stared calmly. "How did you come across my name?"

"Gura told me all about you, and your fox spirit." Between "you" and "and your" she had paused for what she probably considered a more dramatic affect.

Nuema looked over at Kurama amused, "Fox spirit?"

"Yes. His name is Youko." This came from Shiei. Nuema looked down at her.

"You knew?"

"Yes." '_I just read that from the fox's mind.'_

Nuema rolled her eyes thinking, "_Figures." _She then turned to Kurama to find he was walking away from the others. "Kurama." He turned to look at her when she said his name, his eyes voiced his question. "Ayukai can control both rocks and plants. She has a reason to wanting to fight you. Don't do anything stupid."

Kurama nodded and continued walking.

"And why does he get a warning? Why couldn't you have warned me or Kuwabara?"

"Because," Nuema crossed her arms and sat on the ground, "Ayukai is a dangerous foe."

"Like stealing moves and souls isn't dangerous!" That was Kuwabara.

"If the soul is taken away I can put it back in a certain amount of time. I can't do anything once their life is taken. Besides, I didn't know she could do that, you twit. Now shut up." Nuema's silver eyes held a slight hint of gold to them as she watched the ensuing fight between Ayukai and Kurama intently.

Kurama was calm, his eyes showing no trace of fear. He was soft spoken, not out of fear, but out of extreme calm. "Do you wish to make the first move?"

Ayukai smirked but did nothing else otherwise. Suddenly a spire of earth popped up under Kurama. He moved to dodge, but he was too late as the sharp point caught his hand as it rose. The spire pierced through his right hand between the bones of two fingers. The spire rose until his feet were dangling five feet in the air. He kept a calm appearance as if this happened everyday. Suddenly the rock embedded in his hand became razor sharp. His eyes winced in pain as the rock cut through his hand, after a minute he fell to the ground, the spire disappeared into the ground once more.

Kurama stood up, his right arm hung uselessly by his side. Nuema watched in slight sympathy, "_That's got to hurt."_ She wondered how well he could fight with one hand useless, not to mention it was his dominant hand.

As another spire rose out of the ground, Kurama dodged successfully. He stood still, letting his arms hand by his side. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard, creating a forest out of plants that looked like normal ningenkai plants, if one excluded the fact that plants that were usually a foot tall were now eight feet in height. Other plants were clearly demonic in their nature, mainly because there was no way they could grow naturally on earth by their structure. A few of the plants tried to grow around Ayukai to immobilize her or at least slow her down.

Ayukai jumped backwards to avoid the plants. "Naughty boy." She had several spires grow around Kurama, trapping him. Kurama flicked his left hand back through his red tresses, producing a red rose. He held it carefully to avoid the thorns and less then a second later, he flicked the rose as one would a whip. The petals fell off and the stem lengthened until it was whip length. In fact, it was a whip, although it was odd considering it was green and covered in thick, strong, durable thorns. He cracked his whip, it sliced through the spires trapping him like a heated knife would through a stick of softened butter.

The others view of what was going on was blocked by the myriad of plants Kurama had created. Nuema knitted her eyebrows, recognizing the scent of, "Roses?"

"Yeah. Kurama's rose whip can slice through anything."

"While the plants may slow down a person, his rose whip can slice through the plants to reach Ayukai."

Back in the "forest", Kurama had closed his eyes in concentration once more. This time he was making strange use of his nose to try and smell out Ayukai in case he didn't hear her moving in the brush. His eyes snapped open and in a flashed he had cracked his whip into the plants slicing through them. Ayukai had not been expecting that and she had to jump backwards to avoid getting sliced into two. However, she was hit slightly by the end of the whip, sending her back into a plant. Blood quickly appeared on the one sleeve she had, as well as a small tear in the cloth over her wound.

Ayukai stood up and gave Kurama an annoyed look, her injury stung since it had been inflicted with the tip of the whip. She raised the arm with the markings on it. A plant appeared behind Kurama and swung at him. Kurama jumped backwards to dodge the sharp edge of the plant. Two plants jumped out of the ground next to Kurama and swung at him as well. He jumped into the air to dodge, doing an expertly executed back flip.

When he landed he felt something pierce the skin on his cheek. He gently felt his check with his right hand, using his pointer and thumb, since the next two fingers would cause agony to move. He felt something buried in his cheek and gently pulled it out and stared at a bloody seed. Suddenly it burst into growth and to make sure it didn't take root in him he tossed it to the side. He heard a low whistling sound and looked up, quickly spotting more seeds flying at him. Taking no chance he swung his whip three times making three consecutive whip cracks. The rose whip sliced through all the seeds.

Outside the massive silence was unnerving or rather annoying two people, Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"All we hear is Kurama using his rose whip! What's going on in there?"

Nuema lifted her cold silver eyes to look at Yusuke, "Kurama is on the defensive."

"How do you know that?"

"Twit I can read minds, I've mentioned that before."

"Oh, but I don't feel your territory."

Nuema made a sound that sounded like scoff, "I wouldn't be much of a psychic if I needed such an unrefined aurora to use my skills. Now shut up." Nuema looked back to the "forest".

Between dodging attacks from Ayukai and destroying seeds with his whip Kurama didn't have much of a chance to attack and he was using his spirit energy, fast. Eventually, when he landed from a dodge he accidentally landed on his right hand. He winced and dropped his whip, it turned back into a rose, minus its petals.

Ayukai smirked and sent a few seeds flying at Kurama. Kurama tried to dodge, but was too late. The seeds hit him, causing explosions upon impact. The myriad of plants Kurama had created withered and died.

When the smoke from the explosions cleared, Kurama was no where in sight. Standing where the red-head should have been was instead a different person altogether, and obviously a male demon. He was almost a foot taller then the five foot eleven inch human. He had long silver-white hair going a little past his waist and a long fluffy tail the same color as his hair. Sitting on top of his head was a pair of large fox ears. He had emotionless golden-hued eyes. His attire was in the same style as Kurama's, but was completely white and lacking a shirt under the tunic type thing. This could only been, of course, Youko. "Shuuichi should be thankful." His voice was as devoid of emotions as his eyes were.

Youko was as calm as Kurama, eyes betraying no emotion. He raised his hand and brought it down as a silver glow formed around said appendage, forming a silver rose in the motion. He used this as a distraction as he flicked a seed into the ceiling. Fortunately, it went unnoticed to Ayukai who was the only person it needed to be unnoticed to.

Ayukai smirked and forced plants to grow around Youko's lower limbs and torso, not allowing him to move. Youko didn't even try to dodge the move, and soon found himself only able to move his arms and head. Youko didn't seem much affected by this fact. That was until a demonic plant, resembling a venous flytrap, grew up behind the fox demon, chomping on his tail and pulling it slightly. Youko remained emotionless; although it was a struggle to keep that look up he was in pain. He forced the plant to wither and die.

The fox just flicked the silver rose he was holding and formed a rose whip much longer then Kurama's. He cracked his whip, only to wrap the thorny weapon around his own neck!

"Planning to kill yourself, baka kitsune?"

Youko offered no response, and made to tighten the whip when something dropped from the ceiling. It was a plant, it was similar in shape to the plant that had recently been making a meal of his tail, although it was hanging from a lengthy vine attached to the ceiling where Youko had sent the seed. The plant dropped over Ayukai and bit her head off. The plant withered and died, falling on top of the remains of Ayukai's corpse. Youko offered the faintest of smirks and turned his whip back into its original form of a silver rose.

Youko closed his eyes and concentrated. He turned back into Kurama, whom promptly dropped the silver rose that Youko had been holding in his right hand for the thorns had dug into his injury.

Nuema got up and walked over to Kurama. She picked up his right hand and stared at it.

"Nuema? What?"

"Idiot. You're lucky you didn't break the bones that you had already weakened when you landed on it like you did." It was true, to create the injury the rocky spire had had to slice through some of the bones in his hand.

Kurama slightly grinned in a sheepish fashion and sweat dropped. "You knew?"

"Yes." Nuema closed her eyes as she healed his hand, for the most part. She left a gash running from the center of the back of his hand to the center of his palm. As soon as she had finished she walked through the door that had opened.


	17. A Close Call

!-Begin Chapter Seventeen-!

A Close Call 

The others followed Nuema. Waiting there to greet them was yet another female. She was shorter then the others and a bit heavier set. She also seemed older with her stormy gray hair and gray eyes. She wore a soft gray kimono with a pure white obi. In front of her bare feet was a game board, although it was a really odd one.

She looked up at the group as they entered. Everyone eye her with varying degrees of mistrust ranging from Nuema with very little to Hiei and Shiei with complete.

"Hello, my name is Gura." She looked over at the group again, "The ones named Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yusuke have already fought and will not fight again. The one named Nuema has been requested to fight our leader. The ones named Hiei and Shiei remain to fight and only one will." She spoke as if she was stating her thoughts aloud.

Hiei and Shiei gave the other a look that said, "I'm fighting, you aren't so deal with it."

Gura shook her head at the two. "It won't be an actual fight, but a test of your mental strength." Shiei glared and looked disgusted and disgruntled.

'_Hiei, you fight._'

Hiei just smirked and walked foreword. Gura had a look of pure nonchalance, after all she really didn't care who her opponent was out of the two.

"This is a very simple game. Just sit down in front of the board." Hiei glared at her and sat cross-legged in front of it. After Hiei was settled, Gura knelled on a cushion. "This a more demonic version of the human game called chess, however it is harder to play and will take your fullest concentration." Therein she explained the complex rules in less then five minutes. Now it was Hiei's turn to be nonchalant, he was bored by the end of the explanation.

"Let's just get over with already." Sounding very arrogant, this was Hiei's statement.

The game lasted about ten minutes. Hiei was actually making no arrogant moves when he could have, which was quite a shocker. Of course, that couldn't have lasted for too long, considering the fire demon's personality.

Hiei only had a piece left while Gura had fiver, four were grouped together and one was off to the side. Hiei had two options, take the one off to the side first and then go for the larger group, or go for the larger group and not move for two turns and most assuredly lose.

The former being more cautious and the later being more arrogant. Of course, knowing Hiei he would choose the later. Which he did and Gura, who had actually been expecting this had set it up that way on purpose. After Gura took Hiei's last piece and Hiei had lost the game, Shiei couldn't hold a statement in any longer.

"Hiei! You arrogant little demon!" She sounded slightly concerned but more annoyed.

Hiei didn't hear her though, for at that moment his head titled forward as if the back of said head had been hit hard. He blinked. When his eyes opened, the fiery red orbs in them were in a large lack of pupils. Mechanically, lacking his usually arrogance, he flicked back his cloak and drew the katana concealed under it on his waist. A dark psychic aurora was surrounding the blade, however only Nuema saw it. The aura caused her concern. Hiei turned to face the group, Shiei in particular.

Shiei glared at Hiei, her previous concern completely behind her, she though he was irked about being called 'little'. "Hiei, you're a moron." Of course, if he was irate, that wasn't helping her.

Less mechanically, Hiei's eyes narrowed into a glare. He readied his sword and charged at Shiei. Nuema started to run, knowing exactly Hiei was going to do and tried to stop him. However in mid-step of her first step while one of her legs was off the ground, psychic energy surrounded her, freezing her in the motion. Her eyes widened as she watched the same energy surrounded Shiei, preventing her from moving to avoid Hiei's sword. The sword stabbed through her, seemingly going through her heart. She coughed and fell forward, barely able to cough out a feeble, "why?" before going limp and closing her eyes, held up momentarily by the psychic aura before it dissipated.

"Hiei, you bastard!"

Hiei wasn't paying attention, however, he was staring at the top of Shiei's head, which was resting on his hand holding the hilt of his sword, icy tipped black strands of hair resting on the appendage itself. Hiei's eyes were twitching in shock. He pulled his sword out of Shiei's supposed corpse and lifted it, staring in shock at it, mainly the crimson blood coating most of the steel. He turned to glare at Gura, giving her a glare he reserved only for those that were about to die. He flicked the blood off his blade and charged at Gura. Gura stood up from where she had been knelling and raised a hand at Hiei, a gust of wind forced him into the earthen wall behind him. Gura sat back down.

"Damn you!" Hiei growled as he got up seconds later. "You will die!" He glared and stood up, readying to charge again. However, he stiffened and fell face first into the dirt halfway there. Gura's head fell onto the table, making the piece of the forgotten game jump.

The energy faded from around Nuema, finally allowing her free movement once more. Her foot hit the ground and her arms fell to her side, but she didn't notice at all. "_I don't get it. Hiei failed both tests, so Yusuke and Kuwabara should be dead...unless." _Nuema's eyes widened and she ran over to where Shiei lay, bleeding profusely from the wound in her chest. She turned the demon over. Nuema pressed two fingers against the back of Shiei's neck and closed her eyes. In five seconds' time she opened her eyes in shock. She had sensed some activity running down Shiei's spine.

Kurama had also quickly placed two and two together, "_Odd, if Hiei did fail in his fight with Gura why is she dead as well, instead of Yusuke and Kuwabara?" _Since only one conclusion could reached, Hiei did not fail, Kurama went over to where Hiei was, quickly taking note of the fact that he was breathing.

While that was happening, elsewhere the fight was continuing. Gura and Hiei were standing in a large clearing which was surrounded by trees in the distance. Hiei looked around and then looked over at Gura continuing to give her that extra special glare.

"Where are we?"

"We're in the realm of the mind. You only have the strength, skills and endurance you think you should have. Once this fight is over, our fates will be decided. We both have passed and failed one test each. From this fight, only one of our souls will return to our body."

Hiei smirked, snickering with an ominous tone. He lifted his right arm up, cloak sleeve fell, revealing thin white bandages bound around said limb, "Bringing me here was a mistake you won't live through."

In a few seconds Hiei's eyes opened and he sat up. He had won, but at what price? Suddenly a shadow was over him. He was pulled up by his scarf, "Hiei! Even if I didn't like her, you don't kill your team mates!"

Hiei caught the punch aimed for him and glared at Yusuke, "Hn!"

"Answer me, dammit! You killed a team mate!" Nuema looked over at Kurama who quickly got the picture.

Kurama walked over and forced Yusuke's hand down, so that Hiei's feet were once again touching solid ground. "Yusuke, it would be wise to make sure that Shiei was indeed dead before punishing, Hiei."

"What is that supposed to mean, fox boy? You saw it too, he killed her!"

Nuema closed her eyes and used some telekinetic energy to severely whack Yusuke. "Yusuke, shut up and let go of Hiei." Yusuke let go of Hiei's scarf and turned to look over at her. "Two things. First, Gura had a strong grasp over Hiei's actions at the time. Secondly, Shiei is still alive." Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei stared at Nuema as if she had grown a third head.

"It makes sense. After losing the game, Hiei never died, and at first his motions were more like a puppet doll's. When Hiei collapsed, neither you or Kuwabara died, Yusuke. If he had failed after losing, the both of you were supposed to be killed along with Hiei. Gura also collapsed. Gura's fight must have been in multiple parts and that game was only one of them."

"What does that mean, fox boy?"

Yusuke got bopped on his head once more, this time by Nuema's fist. "Dolt, what he said, basically, is evidence proving what I said and some other oddities. Delis told me that Gura's fights do take place in three parts, she likes to call them tests, one must pass two out of the three to beat her. The first one is her chess game, the second is resisting her mind control and the third is to beat her in her mental realm. Hiei lost the first test, he must have passed the second, which means he couldn't have killed Shiei since Hiei did beat Gura."

Hiei took all the new information in, but he needed to make sure. So he walked over to Shiei and stopped, starring at her limp body, sensing faint energy throbs coming from it. He really couldn't believe it, how had she survived?

As if she had read his thoughts, which she probably had, Nuema spoke up, "Shiei's a very stubborn person. That injury would have killed anyone else by now."

"Why don't you heal her?"

Nuema didn't move from where she was standing. Her gaze was focused on the door that had opened during their friendly discussion including cursing, yelling and insults. She clenched a hand that was covered in blisters.

"I won't be able to spare the energy. She should last long enough for me to heal her though." She took a few steps foreword to the door and stopped, "Come on." She walked through the door. Everyone eventually followed her at their own pace. Hiei came last for he picked Shiei up in his arms and carried her to the next room, unable to let her stay there.

!-End Chapter Seventeen-!

Oh, yeah basically, Yusuke was only pissed about Hiei "killing" Shiei because well, Shiei was a teammate of his. And so was Hiei. And I think teammate's killing another like he thought Hiei had would piss him off. Sorry if I'm wrong.


	18. Final Battle

!-Begin Chapter Eighteen-!

Final Battle 

Standing in front of a small lake full of energy was another demon. This one had short dark red hair with streaks of dark purple and black. She had dark purple eyes. She wore a skin tight maroon shirt ending mid-riff. She wore a pair of loose teal pants with thick navy trim. She also wore simple black sandals. In her hand was a sword. The blade was made of gold, the hilt comprising of black diamond.

"So all of you made it here alive, but you won't leave in such a state/"

Yusuke got angry and raised a fist, "Why you!"

Nuema forced Yusuke's hand down, "You've already fought, let someone else fight who hasn't fought already."

"You can fight?" Yusuke stared in disbelief at her. Even though she had shown advanced fighting knowledge, she had never raised her fist before in his sight, so he didn't think she could.

"Of course I can, you idiot." Nuema walked foreword, glaring coolly at the person.

"Ah, Nuema, hold of my sister's soul. My name's Niema, although Delis probably told you about that already."

"Yes she has, and I assume you found out about me from Gura."

"Indeed I have, so we both should know how strong the other is, and you should know you can't beat me as you are."

"Hn. I know well what you wish for me to do, but I won't do so."

"Very well then." Niema stepped sideways and waved behind herself, motioning to the lake steaming every color possible. "You can use the energy stored in the water to refuel yourself, I'd hate to beat someone like you while you're down. You might as well have more of a fighting chance, although it won't affect the outcome."

Nuema continued her calm glare at Niema but moved to lake. She briefly glanced down at the blue waters, "Quite a feat, storing such vast amounts of energy in water."

"Marishi did that before she became a traitor like Delis."

"You must have been planning this for quite a while then."

Nuema closed her eyes and a golden aurora surrounded her. When her hand broke through the water's surface her aurora turned as many hues as the steam. After a while she stood up and faced Niema.

Niema smirked, "Yes we have. And you can't use that lake for the rest of the fight."

"Fine."

Niema charge at Nuema without warning. Nuema jumped to the side and avoided a swipe by the sword. She clenched her hands into fists and moved them into a live level with her shoulders and moved them down to her sides. Energy flew out of her hands. Out of the left came fire and the other was water. She soon held two whips of elemental energy.

As Niema turned to charge at her again, Nuema raised her hands and cracked the fire whip, which caught the golden blade. She then cracked the water whip which caught Niema herself. Nuema flung Niema into the rock wall. She clasped her hand, combining the handles. The energies combined, then changed shape into a blade made of constantly shifting red and blue hues which had steam rolling off of it.

Nuema turned to face where Niema had fallen. She lifted her blade, barely able to parry Niema's sword. Briefly ensuing this was a quick sword fight going back and forth between the two for who was winning. High amounts of energy waves came from both of them.

"Nuema's pretty strong, she should win this."

"No," Kurama replied to Kuwabara's statement, "I supposed you can't sense well enough to tell the difference between which energy belongs to, but Nuema is far out-classed by Niema and is losing her energy faster."

"Have a little faith, will ya, ya pessimist?" Hiei kept from entering the conversation as he looked at Shiei's face.

There was a minor explosion as their swords met again. Both were blown backwards, but remained standing, although Nuema was low on energy from keeping that sword for as long as she had. Actually, that's what the explosion came from. She was now sword less and couldn't risk forming another without risking death.

Niema smirked as she realized that fact.

"Do you mean to tell me that's your best, if so I'm sadly disappointed."

"No its not." Nuema closed her eyes as more aura surrounded her. "_I have to be careful this time around. I can use my energy as freely as I did before._"

She clenched a hand forming a blade made of pure fire energy. Although her energy and aurora were aura were replenished, she was still weakened slightly from needing to use her reserved energy, although she still gave off the energy of a lower B class demon. As Niema charged at her again, Nuema was barely able to parry, but not in time to keep a gash from being cut into her cheek. When the blades met Nuema pushed Niema's back before jumping backwards. She felt the injury and looked over at Niema. The golden blade was glowing with black energy, the blade itself had streaks of the bloodiest red forming in it.

"This is the famed Red Blood Lust." Kurama looked slightly amazed and Hiei snapped his head up.

The red blood lust. This sword was formed by the most powerful black smith in all of demon world. It was formed after the blades Sealed Fate and the Phoenix Talon blade and is weaker then both. The wielder of the sword gains more power as more blood is spilt upon it. The wounds created from this sword can not be closed and have to heal naturally, and will do so very slowly.

Nuema calmly glared at Niema and slashed her sword, bands of fire flew at Niema. Niema dodged and the bands flew into the wall, making an explosion. Small bits of rubble fell down from the explosion. Niema appeared behind Nuema and started to swing the blade. Nuema turned around to dodge, so only her shoulder was hit. Nuema's hand twitched and the blade disappeared. She used her freed right hand to hold her shoulder and watched as Red Blood Lust glowed black again.

Nuema glowered and let her right hand rest next to her and stood up straight. She clenched her fists as Niema disappeared again. When the demon reappeared behind Nuema, she turned around. The side of her torso was slashed as she made a small cut in Niema's cheek with one quick motion of her hand with a nail as the weapon. Some blood splattered on her hand and Niema's front from Nuema's wound. Nuema jumped back and her side. The blade glowed black again as it absorbed the blood.

As Niema disappeared again, Nuema followed the blood dripping from the cut of Niema's cheek. She dodged in time to prevent herself from being injured again. As she looked back at where Niema was she saw no one. She looked around, barely spotting the telltale blood and moving out of the way again. This time Niema stood still, wiping the blood off her cheek.

"Very smart move, I wasn't expecting you to do something like that. However," Niema smirked and snickered arrogantly, "there is still no way you can beat me, especially now. You've had to use all the energy you had left and you can't heal yourself."

Nuema winced slightly but continued glaring at Niema, "Shut up." She moved towards Niema and raised a hand. Bolts of red and black electricity jumped from the outfacing palm towards Niema. Niema lifted her hand and absorbed all of the chaotic energy.

"It is useless to try, you've been weakened so much that even a low class demon could beat you."

"I won't let you beat me."

"It is unfortunate that you are to stubborn to accept the truth. You could tag out."

"Hmph, only if I can't fight any more."

"Well then, you should have mentioned that earlier."

Niema charged at Nuema again and Nuema dodged by lucky guess, she couldn't follow Niema's blood anymore. When she landed pain coursed through her. Electricity of every color was surrounding her and draining her energy rapidly.

"If this continues," Kurama spoke in shock, "She'll be killed."

"You're kidding me."

"I'm afraid I'm not."

Suddenly the electricity disappeared. Nuema's clothes were frazzled and dirty. She started to collapse forward, but stopped. A strong gold aura surrounded her, causing her brown tresses to float in the air. Her eyes were closed. Her hair turned purple and became longer. She became taller as well. Her outfit changed to become almost exactly like Niema's, however, the shirt had the same coloration as her pants, which ended at her knees, showing white bandages. Also, she gained a sword, it was tied about her waist by a thick red and gold rope. As she stood, she opened her eyes, showing that they were a golden shade.

Those oddly tinted eyes narrowed into a glare although they were devoid of emotion. The face merely appearing to serve as a battle expression.

"Ah, Delis, its always good to see my traitorous younger sister."

"Wait, Delis is Niema's sister?"

"Apparently so, Kuwabara, although I had my suspicions from the way she greeted Nuema."

Delis drew a relatively normal looking katana, "Such a kind greeting. I can't say I'm as pleased to see you." The aura around her body became weaker and easier to see through. Niema charged at Delis and she lifted her sword. The swords clashed. Both of them jumped backwards. Delis tightened her hold on the hilt of her sword.

The hilt glowed and transformed. It was made of what appeared o be the talon of a bird of prey. The four talons hung over the blade itself, embedded in the top of the hilt was a fiery stone that was almost triangular in shape.

Delis lifted her hand and put her other hand on the end of the hilt. She twisted her sword hand so it was in front of the hilt. The blade glowed black and coated itself in flames of the same shade.

Delis and Niema charged at each other when their swords met again, the flames around Delis's sword erupted, nearly burning Niema. Niema jumped backwards, loathing in her eyes. Delis smirked.

"Isn't this the Phoenix Talon Blade you wished to possess so badly that you sent so many demons after Zaira to coerce it from her? Then why do you look at it with such hate?"

"Because I hate you for having it! You shouldn't even be holding it right now. It belonged to the group, but you stole it, and foiled my plants, then left taking it for yourself. I was just going to take back what wasn't yours." Niema's voice was near a growl.

"Are you that different? You took Red Blood Lust for yourself."

"Only to beat you."

"Doubtlessly you planned to return it. I will remind you that you had your eyes on the blade when I owned it."

"You will be quite and die."

Niema charged at Delis once again. Delis jumped up. While she was in the air, Niema sent a blast of fire energy at her younger sibling. The fire only burned away the bandages from Delis's legs. Delis landed on the ground, white scars appearing on her body, mainly her back. On the back of her arms appeared scars that could have been wings, on the back of her calves was something that appeared to be talons.

Delis smirked, "Although I'd be honoring you with the Takabu, I haven't used it in over thirty years. Feel honored."

Delis closed her eyes and raised her arms to be in line with her shoulders. The scaring lit up, some light even filtering through her long purple hair. The light became blinding suddenly as there was a sound similar to an eagle's cry. When the light subsided above Delis was a bird made of pulsing fire energy that was white, red, orange, and black.

The scars had been removed from Delis's body. Her eyes were now opened as she raised the palm of her hand to face Niema. The bird charged and flew into Niema. When it was on the other side of the lake, it disappeared. Niema was covered in burns and her clothes were covered in soot. Niema collapsed to her knees. Delis walked over to her sister.

"Before you die, tell me what you did with the Kiram."

"I can't believe you would use that on your own sister." Niema had a very hollow look in her eyes, her voice was monotone.

"Where are the Kiram?"

"I can't believe I lost.

"My patience grows thin. Tell me where the Kiram are."

"Over there." Niema waved her hand over at a wall, near a small pile of rubble. She collapsed, dead a few seconds later.

Delis sheathed her sword and took it off her waist. She tossed it over at the group, probably more aimed at Kurama, since it landed at his feet.

"When Zaira wakes up, give that to her. If not, you will die."

Delis raised her hand, the hilt of Niema's sword and the abandoned sheath flew into it. She seated the golden blade and put it where the Phoenix Talon Blade had been moments ago. Delis walked over to the wall and rested a hand on it. The wall faded, revealing a small closet sized alcove holding about fifty Kiram. They piled out and stormed around Delis. Delis picked up a rock from the nearby rubble and charged it with energy.

"Place this in the center of the clearing when you get back." She handed it to a Kiram which nodded at her. Delis placed her right hand on the ground. An icy blue symbol appeared on the ground. It was circular in sharp, surrounding the Kiram and Delis. A foot from the outside was another icy blue circle. Inscribed in the inner circle was the outline of a triangle. Between the inner and outer circles were three small circles at the points of the triangle. In between the large circles there were letters, emblazoned in ice blue, of an ancient language.

The symbol flashed and dissipated, taking the Kiram with it. Delis turned back into Nuema who collapsed on her back. Kurama walked over to her, able to see the gentle rise and fall of her chest, as if she was asleep, although she had practically no energy.

Minutes later, Botan flew smiling into the group who were halfway out of the caves, "Good job guys! You did..." Suddenly her bubble burst as she saw Shiei being held in Hiei's arms. She then noticed Nuema who was being carried between Yusuke and Kurama. "Oh dear. We should bring them to Spirit World. Master Genkai is already there."

!-End Chapter Eighteen-!


	19. Recovery and Traitors

Recovery and Traitors 

A few hours later in Spirit World, Shiei and Nuema were in rooms on different ends of a hall in the hospital wing of the underworld. The short old woman named Genkai had seen to both of them, but Nuema's wounds refused to close and she remained unconscious. As for Shiei, all that was left was to hope that she would be stubborn enough to liver. Whenever Genkai had tried to heal the wound, black energy lashed out at the nearest living thing, usually Genkai's hand. So all that could have been done was the wounds being bandaged.

Hiei was pacing back and forth in the hallway, end to end, he had been in Shiei's room after Genkai had left. He hadn't been told about the problem with Shiei's injury and thought that it had been healed. Meanwhile, Kurama was sitting on his knees next to Nuema's bed. Nuema should have been up by now, but she was still asleep.

Kurama had started to lean over but stopped. "_Youko! What was that for?" _He thought angrily at the fox spirit in his head.

'_What? You're being pathetic.'_

"_Why did you have to do that?" _All Kurama got was an annoying snicker from the back of his mind.

In Nuema's mind, she was floating in eternal darkness, completely alone. She was scared or sad, she was used to being completely alone. Now she felt peaceful, she knew there was no one around to hurt her.

"_I walk alone, I always have."_

Suddenly the dark in her mind broke and she woke up. Suddenly there was a large crash. Outside, Hiei heard and turned to walk into the room, hopefully so he wouldn't be so bored. Yusuke, who had just come into the hall also heard the crash and ran into the room. Inside was some sight. Nuema was sitting up in the bed, one hand clenched over the sheets and glaring at Kurama. Kurama was sitting against the opposite wall, rubbing a cheek. He stood up and let his hand drop as Yusuke and Hiei came in. On his abused cheek was a hand print. Yusuke looked between Kurama and Nuema.

"What happened?"

"Kurama was in striking distance when I woke up."

A mischievous looked crossed Yusuke's eyes, "How far in?"

"Far enough," Nuema quickly changed subject, "How's Shiei?" She looked at Kurama. Hiei left suddenly whilst Yusuke stayed put.

"She's still unconscious from what I last heard."

"I see." Nuema stood up and looked at Kurama. "Where is she?"

"Across the hall." Nuema started to walk, but nearly collapsed, she still needed to recover, "Perhaps you should rest some more."

Meanwhile, Hiei had been standing outside the door to Shiei's room. He eventually opened it and walked in, getting hit by a fireball. He looked over at Shiei, startled as she was sitting up in the bed on the other side of the room, glaring.

As Hiei dodged another fireball, Nuema walked in. She took not of the scorch marks on the wall and looked over at the very irate demon.

"Stop it, Shiei."

"Hn. Like I'd waste my time on a traitor." Hiei felt hurt and partially angered by the loathing in her voice, he had never betrayed her so long as he had known her. However, all he did was glare at the air.

"Hiei, why don't you step out for a bit?" Nuema gentle pushed Hiei out the door and slammed it shut. She turned to face an extremely pissed off demon. "Shiei, cool it, Hiei didn't mean to do it."

"Of course he didn't. He was just planning to break his sword against the wall in anger, but just happened to miss and hit me." Her voice was practically dripping with sarcasm.

"That's not quite what I meant." Nuema sat down, rubbing her temples, "You see, Gura has three tests. The first is always beat her in her game. If you loose that, she takes control of your mind and forces you to do something you wouldn't normally do, resisting her mind control is the second test." She looked up at Shiei who was impatiently waiting for the point of all this, "Since Hiei lost at the game, so she took control of his mind. He had to pass the mind control test, and the third one, which he did, otherwise the both of you would be dead. I think Gura meant for Hiei to kill you, but he didn't listen to her completely, so you're alive. He never did mean to hurt you."

"Hn. Fine. I'll talk to him, but I'm not promising anything else."

Nuema nodded, "Without killing him or hurting him," and got up. She opened the door and told Hiei, who was waiting right outside, that Shiei was willing to talk to him. Hiei walked into the room and gentely closed the door behind himself. She looked up to spot Kurama holding the Phoenix Talon Blade.

"Kurama, what?"

"Delis wished me to give this to you." He proffered the sword to her, but instead held her shoulder up as her feeble strength gave out at last. "Perhaps you should rest now?"

Nuema nodded and Kurama helped her back into her room to get some much needed rest.

"Two Halves One whole" Extra comments by the author 

Yay! I'm finally done with this story! –big arse grin of doom-

This ish Digi here. I've had a lot of fun writing this. I had as much writing the fights at the end as I did writing the humor and the random hints of romance. 'Though I suck at romance.

Oh yeah, I made many many changes to the story. So go check out the first two chapters to get the most of it. Then the fourth to get the revised look of Shiei. The most of the other updates were minor editations to make it more accurate. Like instead of "Shuichi" I changed it to "Shuuichi" to make it more accurate to the spelling it is supposed to be. I did a few other things to make the culture of the Japanese click more, and got rid of most of the Japanese in the story because I felt like it.

I should have a sequel to this story out in the next week. With a slim chance before hand of a one-shot coming out before the sequel explaining practically all of the major events between Two Halves One Whole and Troubles. The one shot is called What Happened Then, so keep an eye out for it.

This is Digi signing out until the next time.

Ciao!

Digi


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